Guild Wars 2

I believe they act like light-weight asura gates. We’ve seen magical artifacts within the Guild Wars universe that allow for similar teleportation before, and in Guild Wars 1 it was an Elonian scholar that created the map warp system. That system worked in mysterious, indeterminate ways, but the waypoints are a bit more tangible and defined.

Specifically we know that the asura gates work by setting crystals to specific resonating frequencies (similar to tuning a radio). I’ve always just imagined the waypoints using similar resonating crystals, but they’re set to a specific frequency. This would allow someone to run up to one crystal and select another to go to, assuming you know the correct frequency (hence finding it on the map).

As for being able to use them from anywhere, I’ve chalked that up to D&D-style adventuring rules. Rather than having to roleplay the act of walking across an entire city to reach the inn, players sometimes opt to jump ahead in time with the understanding that nothing of interest or consequence happened during that stretch of time. I think of it in the same way — you just throw out the non-event span of time it takes you to reach the nearest waypoint crystal.

As for why you have to pay to use them, or how that works, I assume one of the following is true:
- The waypoints utilize certain metals as fuel for their transport process, and it’s been conveniently measured to match up with commonly-used coins.
- The asura that control them need to collect tolls for maintenance (especially for the waypoints in dangerous areas), and so there’s a bucket or a pay slot or something.
- Everyone in Tyria is very unlucky and has holes in their pockets.

So in short I believe that you have to walk up to one to use it, but for convenience and to beat out the monotony we can use the D&D adventuring rule of “nothing interesting happened between your starting point and reaching the waypoint, so we’re just going to skip to that point in time.”

BrunoBRS.5178:

Drede.4701:

They were literally seconds away from killing Kralkatorrik without him, and the part he was supposed to cover is the reason they failed… sounds to me like there is a pretty kitten good chance they would have succeed with him there. And Jenna saved herself with her mesmer skills anyways so she technically didn’t even need him there.

On the other hand, I think the branded areas are some of the coolest parts to the game and am much looking forward to the time we get to kill Ole’ Kraky instead

they were seconds away from trying to stab kralk with a lance that could not even work (after all, even if the lance could pierce him and hurt him, it would be the equivalent of me stabbing you with a needle to the heart).

jennah only managed to summon the illusion because logan was there to hold the line and keep the branded from invading the house she was hiding in. if logan wasn’t there, and if logan hadn’t freed the charr, ebonhawke would’ve been completely destroyed, and all of that stuff i said about the results of jennah dying would’ve happened.

again, it was glint and snaff surviving to kill kralk, and the entire world crumbling and eventually dying (starting with the extinction of your own race), or losing glint and snaff, letting kralk go, but having another chance at defeating the dragons.

lose a battle to have a chance at winning the war.

They were seconds away from Snaff taking control of Kralkatorrik’s mind. If the lance didn’t work they’d have plenty of time to try other stuff, such as forcing Kralkatorrik to go back to sleep. You are really confused if you believe that Jennah needed Logan there at all.

Also you act as though losing Ebonhawke in such a manner would be a bad thing. It’s one of the few things that the charr and humans are still at odds with each other over. If Ebonhawke was taken out of Ascalon then the charr would hold much less animosity against the humans, and the humans wouldn’t need to continue to fund an endless siege against the charr. Ebonhawke falling to the Branded would have eliminated one of the few tangible issues that remain between the humans and charr.

Alexander.4827:

It was Eir’s decision to proceed without Logan.
I do think Logan is often whiny, over protective of Jennah and annoying but all they had to do was wait or even help Logan and then go back to hunting down Jormag. It’s not like Jormag was going anywhere.

It’s fascinating how the general player base has chosen to focus on Logan’s decision rather than Eir’s.

It didn’t play out that way. They weren’t hunting Jormag, they were hunting Kralkatorrik, who had just awoken and was making a beeline for the Crystal Desert in order to slay Glint. Glint was Kralkatorrik’s champion and she had betrayed him, and so he wanted to kill her for her betrayal.

If they had waited around then Kralkatorrik would have shown up anyway. The decision Eir made was to meet him head-on rather than attempting to retreat or buy some time hiding or something. Zojja thinks that was a mistake. Glint could have comfortably hidden for a very long time in her lair (considering that it’s contained in a single grain of sand in a desert), so the problem was Eir’s impatience/pride.

BrunoBRS.5178:

Kerithlan.1659:

Dinks.2478:

Sajuuk.5706:

Not to be too blunt on the point, but is it just me or is Logan the dumbest member of Destiny’s Edge? Every time he speaks I hear “Hodor!”, and I’m pretty sure this isn’t a bug.

Just to be clear, I have no issues with him as a character, he’s well built and defined, just like the others.

He’s just dumb. The others in Destiny’s Edge have flaws for sure, big flaws, and watching them argue is like watching the world’s most dysfunctional family, but pretty much every reason they failed ties back to Logan. If Logan hadn’t left, Eir’s plan would have worked (and she wouldn’t sound like Eeyore all the time) , Snaff would still be alive, the Crystal Elder Dragon would be dead or severely weakened, Zojja wouldn’t hate everyone, and Rytlock wouldn’t want to disembowel Logan on sight (probably). The others are messed up, sure, but this all goes back to what Logan’s been in denial over for the past 5 someodd years. If he started yelling “Honor!” he’d be Prince Zuko.

P.S. Not meant to be a super serious post, just having some fun.

Logan was sworn to protect Jennah, He did what he had to do to protect the woman he loved, even if it meant sacrificing a chance to take down an elder dragon. I don’t think hes stupid, I think he just weighed the options and figured he didn’t want to destroy the elder dragons if the price was Jennah’s life.

The price of leaving to babysit Jennah was Kralkatorrik’s continued existence, the death of Snaff and Glint, the implosion of Destiny’s Edge and the near-destruction of the Human-Charr peace treaty when he more or less stabbed Rytlock (an incredibly powerful charr with tons of sway) in the back.

The problem here is Jennah and her attitude. She more or less cast Mesmer magic on Logan to make him love her and teleport to her at the drop of a hat, and then when she meddled with his guild (and directly caused their disbandment) so that he could come “save her” she ended up saving herself with more Mesmer magics anyway.

Jennah is such a B. Bros before Hoes Logan. Not worth it.

and the cost of leaving jennah to die meant kralkatorrik would likely still be alive, but jennah died, charrs are still at war with humans, which are now demoralized due to the loss of the queen, divinity’s reach sinks into corruption, and the 5 races never unite against the dragons.

congratulations, letting jennah die just doomed the world.

Jennah wouldn’t have died, if you’d read the book you’d know that the fight ended pretty much with her finally crawling out of her hole and casting super mesmer magic on everything followed by the Ebonhawke forces mopping up the remainder. It was never a matter of “Logan rallied everyone yay!” but rather “Logan fought to the death while Jennah hid in the closet for a while.”

Additionally there is no evidence that the humans and charr would be at war with each other if Jennah were to somehow die, especially considering that at the time of the battle Jennah’s truce was already in place. Seeing Logan and Rytlock united together in the wake of an Elder Dragon’s defeat would most likely draw the races closer together regardless of who took the Krytan throne in Jennah’s wake.

I find it humorous that you’d suggest the five races wouldn’t unite behind the dragons. If they’d been successful and if they’d slain Kralkatorrik, then they’d stand united as representatives of each of the races and be able to say, “Hey, yeah, we can do this, let’s mobilize our troops.”

The problem isn’t Logan making a bad choice or Eir making a bad choice, the problem is Jennah being a needy, infantile, selfish B. She’s the most powerful mesmer in the world. She doesn’t need some random guardian killing himself for her. She’s proven that on more than one occasion. In the personal story it’s pretty clear that Logan only sticks around because it’s what Jennah wants from him. Sure he might love her (whether or not he was manipulated into that is irrelevant), but he makes it very clear that he would leave if Jennah ordered him to.

Letting Jennah die would probably have turned her into a martyr and rallied the Krytans, and the mutual loss of the Charr outside of Ebonhawke would likely bring the races closer together. Nothing about Jennah pulling Logan away was good for anyone except for Jennah.

That isn’t ironic in the slightest. That’s unfortunate circumstance.

DJRiful.3749:

@Danno, you’re asking the impossible unless someone sell you a second hand.

No, what he’s asking for is completely reasonable. Running a minimum-requirements machine on minimum settings will work normally in terms of frame rate and lag.

I had been thinking a lot about this a few weeks ago, and realized that one of the main reasons I’m not working on my Guild Wars Hall of Monuments right now is that my friends/guild are playing Guild Wars 2. If I was able to private message my friends in GW2 while playing GW1 then I’d be able to stay in the loop.

Don’t get me wrong, I can just use something like Steam to do this, but it’d be a lot better (imho) if it was a native mechanic. ArenaNet, you’ve got access to both chat systems — why not link them, at least for friends lists?

Dinks.2478:

Sajuuk.5706:

Not to be too blunt on the point, but is it just me or is Logan the dumbest member of Destiny’s Edge? Every time he speaks I hear “Hodor!”, and I’m pretty sure this isn’t a bug.

Just to be clear, I have no issues with him as a character, he’s well built and defined, just like the others.

He’s just dumb. The others in Destiny’s Edge have flaws for sure, big flaws, and watching them argue is like watching the world’s most dysfunctional family, but pretty much every reason they failed ties back to Logan. If Logan hadn’t left, Eir’s plan would have worked (and she wouldn’t sound like Eeyore all the time) , Snaff would still be alive, the Crystal Elder Dragon would be dead or severely weakened, Zojja wouldn’t hate everyone, and Rytlock wouldn’t want to disembowel Logan on sight (probably). The others are messed up, sure, but this all goes back to what Logan’s been in denial over for the past 5 someodd years. If he started yelling “Honor!” he’d be Prince Zuko.

P.S. Not meant to be a super serious post, just having some fun.

Logan was sworn to protect Jennah, He did what he had to do to protect the woman he loved, even if it meant sacrificing a chance to take down an elder dragon. I don’t think hes stupid, I think he just weighed the options and figured he didn’t want to destroy the elder dragons if the price was Jennah’s life.

The price of leaving to babysit Jennah was Kralkatorrik’s continued existence, the death of Snaff and Glint, the implosion of Destiny’s Edge and the near-destruction of the Human-Charr peace treaty when he more or less stabbed Rytlock (an incredibly powerful charr with tons of sway) in the back.

The problem here is Jennah and her attitude. She more or less cast Mesmer magic on Logan to make him love her and teleport to her at the drop of a hat, and then when she meddled with his guild (and directly caused their disbandment) so that he could come “save her” she ended up saving herself with more Mesmer magics anyway.

Jennah is such a B. Bros before Hoes Logan. Not worth it.

Danno.5269:

I would have no problem with a refurbished laptop. As for HP that’s what my friend is running on. A HP laptop that was brand new at about 500 dollars and runs 10 times better than mine inside the game, for everything else mine runs better -_-

Is there anything specific i should look for graphics wise? Any way i can tell what graphics are better than others?

I’m not an expert with laptop graphics so hopefully someone else can jump in at this point, but I will say that you’ll find yourself in a better place if you at the very least meet minimum requirements. Make sure that the thing can handle anti-aliasing and post-processing well if visual quality is important to you, and if not then just make sure that it has a 64-bit operating system (so you can make better use of your memory).

I’m below minimum requirements (no shaders) and that tends to cause glitch problems during character creation.

ZyloWolfBane.2370:

Wait, this is a serious topic?

Why shouldn’t it be? Don’t tell me you’re one of those “hurr durr hyper elite computer time gogogo nub” teenagers.

shojikareza.1402:

You should get a newer laptop, with 500 USD, it should be able to get a decent laptops… .

Refurbished doesn’t mean old, it just means used. Many refurbished laptops were used for 6 month stints by businesses, saw minimal to no wear, and are marked down almost 50% on resale. You can find refurbished laptops within the first month of its model being released, just like video game consoles.

BrunoBRS.5178:

Sarisa.4731:

Gender is mental. It’s how you perceive yourself.
Sex is physical. It’s how your body exists and functions.

Sylvari have both.

no, gender is “are you a boy or a girl?”. if your pants have extra luggage you’re a guy, if they don’t you’re a gal.

it’s not that hard, people.

I — and progressive society and biology/genetics — reject your gender binary. In an effort not to turn this into a “hurr durr gender isn’t sex” debate I’m just going to leave it at that.

The laptop that I currently play the game on averages no more than 16 FPS on minimum settings. It only spikes above that to 30ish, surprisingly enough, when I’m underwater and looking directly down on my character from above. I have no problems with World vs World but I wouldn’t try any form of structured pvp, not for my sake but for the sake of my teammates.

You should be able to play just fine below minimum requirements as long as you’re comfortable with playing with around 5-15 FPS at all times. Just don’t be upset when random lag spikes eat at you (for me they happen most often in foggy areas or areas with heavy particle effects). I play a very splashy/flashy/fiery character and don’t have problems. You should be fine.

Look for a refurbished, modern HP laptop. Hewlitt Packard isn’t known for having great tech support and they’re not the best on the market, but they’re widely available, widely supported, relatively inexpensive and usually up to par with things. You can get a refurbished one for around 400-500 at most stores that sell laptops.

You’ll be playing on lower-end graphic settings but you’ll have very few problems with performance (just make certain to find one that supports the proper shaders, entertainment notebooks tend to have the proper stuff). HP doesn’t really update their laptop drivers often and tend to end support on models after a few months, so you might have to manually update everything from the parts manufacturers’ websites.

Since it’s refurbished you probably won’t have a HP warranty, so you won’t have tech support (in this case that’s positive). Aim for minimum system requirements and you should be fine for your price range. Refurbished machines are — as a general statement — normally better than factory-fresh machines, as they’ve been examined with a fine-toothed comb rather than glanced over on an assembly line.

Conditioned.2467:

Yea this game does have a kittenload of bugs. A-net why arent you fixing them and instead adding new content? I guess it makes it look better to the media (most journalists probably dont play enough to notice a lot of the really annoying ones anyway).

hurr durr y u no fix prablems cantent suxx !!!

They have different teams. A game studio isn’t a group of like 15 guys working on everything. It can be upwards of 100 people split into different departments working on different projects. Their live event and content team is probably no more than 20 people while their maintenance and tech teams are probably way more than 20 different people. There might be a slight bit of overlap but in general it’s different divisions.

Complaining about new content coming out because there’s bugs that haven’t yet been fixed is about as logical as blaming your dentist for your skin cancer. Totally and completely different things that are worked on by totally and completely different people.

Dey terk err jerbs etc

Mik Hell.8206:

Depends on profession realy, when I did that event with my Elementalist I was lucky because 3 more people joined, I would have never completed it alone.

On my warrior though I had no problems, I actualy was happy about respawn because I had more enemies to kill.

That’s how I normally feel about events like this. When it’s a huge swarm of foes all at once I get frustrated because it’s overwhelming, but when it’s a steady stream of small numbers (1-3 at a time) with enough time to fight each wave it’s okay.

I’ve watched Mesmers have problems with stuff that I roll through and I’ve seen Rangers often have an easier time than I do, so I would agree that it is less about skill and more about the profession that you have chosen. In general any other Guardian can do exactly what I can do, which is done better than most other professions. I believe that may be why I see more Guardians than any other profession when I’m out exploring.

The “five against six” comment could just be a subtle nod toward the human gods, and specifically Abaddon. It’s the Order of Whispers after all.

I was able to comfortably solo this, but then again I’m a Guardian and pretty much ignore mobs. I can understand how an Elementalist or Thief might have major problems with this.

The fix is to not allow people to attack while dodging. The only exception would be off-cooldown attacks such as the Guardian’s Zealot’s Fire or Judge’s Intervention, or the Engineer’s Surprise Shot attack.

Just make dodge rolling cause a global cooldown, or a half global cooldown. If that messes up channeled skills like heals or whatever then don’t make dodge rolling interrupt channeled skills, but still trigger a cooldown for everything else. That will preserve the current environment without allowing for people to exploit things like this.

Brutaly.6257:

Personally i couldnt care less, this issue people seem to have, even though misdirected and uninformed, is with the hammer, it can be used with all weapons. and as such any future adjustment has to be done to the dodge, not the hammer.

Yeah except no. Be more pompous.

The problem I have is that, rather than seeing this for what it is (a blatant abuse of an anomaly/oversight) you’re sitting there arguing that this is somehow a feature. You are flatly wrong. It’s only a “feature” to you because you need to rationalize it for yourself. You’re reinforcing yourself even though you know you’re wrong, which is quite frankly a very dangerous mentality to adopt.

This is not a feature. It is horrible and frightening that some people actually believe that it is.

It is an unintended anomaly that is being exploited.

How did I come to that conclusion? Simple. It has to clip and/or otherwise distort an attack animation to unnaturally increase the weapon’s intended attack rate.

You’re not using an attack speed buff. You’re abusing an oversight in dodge mechanics to give your character an advantage over other players.

Really sit down and look at what you’re doing. Stop looking at it from the perspective of a number-crunching tournament jockey and look at it from the perspective of a game designer.

It is an anomaly, not a feature, and you are exploiting it. It will be fixed.

I actually think that the hardest part might be the footwear now that I think about it.

Footwear is often ignored in games. The variety is relatively small and skins get reused or rehashed for multiple sets. I would worry that you wouldn’t be able to find a solid moccasin-like pair of shoes and be stuck with white man boots more than I would chest armor choices (which have more variety).

That’s just me personally though.

My current build has been totally hilarious. I know it’s impractical but I am such a fireball that I never stop cackling. It helps that I wield a Fiery Dragon Sword to complete the ensemble.

I use a 1h sword, torch, Judge’s Intervention, Purging Flames/Merciful Intervention/Sanctuary (as needed), Signet of Wrath and Hounds of Balthazar (Human, but Renewed Focus works too).

I’m fully committed to Radiance and Zeal. My traits are Shattered Aegis, Fiery Wrath, Binding Jeopardy, Blind Exposure, Right-handed Strength, Radiant Fire, Defender’s Flame. Obviously I swap them around periodically but in general that’s what I go with.

On all of my armor I have only stacked condition damage, condition duration and precision. I expect critical hits most of the time.

This build is hilariously splashy without sacrificing too much survival/durability. Between Aegis popping up often, 2-3 teleports, two different blinds and where necessary condition removal, I only find myself dropping back to heal when my allies simply cannot keep up and need support.

It is highly impractical and I am 100% incapable of fighting Destroyers but it is probably the most fun I’ve had in Guild Wars so far. I’ve spent several years wishing for Smiting Prayers to be decent. Now I can do that.

The point is that I can be very offensive in situations where I really shouldn’t be. This is because of Torch skill 4 and burning, mostly. The torch is my favorite weapon simply because skill 4 is so versatile. It’s a single-target, high-damage, 1200 range pull; at the same time, it’s a “three random foes are set on fire regardless of if I can hit them or not” button that I can activate while stunned or performing other actions. I’ve won many fights against much stronger foes by simply surviving while burning does its thing.

Thord.2017:

Events are pretty much all I do. Maybe one day I will get into fighting other players but to be honest I have always been terrible at it in other games. Dungeons are OK too but def Events are my thing. Meta Events can be great when they aren’t bugged, the Balthazar thing is my favourite.

Just some unsolicited advice:

I find PvP to be hilarious because of how seriously other people take it. Don’t be scared of losing or feel as though you’re awful and a failure if you do. Losing just means your team was the more entertaining one.

Cut your teeth with some WvW, which is an in-between of PvE and PvP.

Topic:
I care about the ones that are less common or are in zones I frequent less often. I do not care about most centaur events anymore.

@Wiser with Age:
But do charr constantly reference their ethereal foe while activating skills, acquiring boons or earning achievements?

Well I was swiftly put into my place. Nicely played.

Triskelion.3628:

I want more of this

I find myself suffering from a sudden absence of wit and retort, and so I must instead defer to the wisdom of the masters to properly convey my thoughts to you.

I believe it was the immortal Slam City DJs who once said: Slam, bam, thank you ma’am / Get on the floor and jam / A ha ah

Sure the objects of these legendary wordsmiths’ prose may have included alien invaders and cartoons playing a rousing game of Earth net sphere with a tall, black fellow. Nonetheless, I feel as though their message easily carries its weight across the artistic boundaries.

Much as the Slam City DJs utilized driven poetry to invigorate movie-goers everywhere, so too must we embrace this ancient norn art as a medium with which to spread our legends.

tl;dr
wat chu got boy

@Ansatsushaa:
Your charm etc. can be modified later in the game by talking to npcs, how would you account for that in an intuitive fashion?

Additionally if you know nothing about the lore of the race you chose you shouldn’t ask questions while presenting evidence that contradicts your snarky insinuations.

Yes that norn looks to be about 8-9 feet tall and about 400-500 lbs because she is a female norn. That’s like telling me that a female human doesn’t look to be about 5-6.5 feet tall and weigh about 90-180 lbs. It’s completely arbitrary.

Go stand next to any typical human npc (which you are not doing in that image) and compare size and body proportions. Norn are shaped like humans but proportionately larger.

I’d point you to the wiki but I’m fairly sure that you can find the info first hand pretty much anywhere you can find official info on the norn, such as the website, in-game, the books, guild wars 1, interviews, etc.

monepipi.5160:

You think you can outrun us centaurs?? ahahahaha * evil laughter *

You think its bad, wait till you get to higher levels. Risen everywhere.

3 most common things in Tyria:
Centaurs
Risen
Butter

I await the inevitable. With the release of the Lost Shore content update, we will finally have the ultimate villain: Risen Centaurs.

“You think you can outrun death?”
“Us centaurs. Good.”

@AliceJutta:
I actually spent three days in Lornar’s Pass assisting my Order, the Durmond Priory; I also contributed to the Mad King’s defeat during this time. I had hoped that by travelling to a new region devoid of centaur life I’d rekindle my spark and reignite my passion to defend my Queendom.

This did not happen. Each night I dreamed terrible dreams, nightmares even. Centaurs were in my home, in my room, shouting curses at me in their heathen tongue. I ran away as fast as I could each time, trying to flee them and their filth…

… but I am Krytan. Any time I gain swiftness I lose control of my vocal chords and shout out, “I could outrun a centaur!” against my will. Even when centaurs are not around, they still haunt me. For three days I saw not one centaur, but they were still with me, taunting me, stalking me, calling me home to Kryta to meet my fate.

I returned to Kryta with a hopeful heart, and traveled north from Lion’s Arch toward the Harathi Hinterlands. I understood that I was about to enter the heart of the centaurs’ homelands, but surely they wouldn’t be waiting for me at the gate?

I was wrong. There were so many centaurs, everywhere. It… It was horrible. I fear for my sanity. I am not fit for the Seraph.

I’ve always liked to imagine that the norn are all super secret upstart rappers. They challenge the world and build their legend not because they seek glory or the thrill of the hunt, but because they’re super egotistical and want more material to slam down while rapping about how great they are.

A friend of mine plays a norn and I’ve found myself banging out some (terrible) lyrics in his character’s voice for him. I figured that this would be fun to share so here’s a couple of them. Just so that people aren’t messaging him I’ve replaced his name with a stage name.

Go ahead and share your own examples. The rules are that they need to be lore-appropriate (no real-world references, for example) and need to adhere to the game’s/site’s rules, regardless of how mature or immature your slam jams might be.

ArenaNet.

I love dynamic events. They make my questing go so fast. Events overlap with quest hearts very often, and I feel as though I am advancing at twice the rate. However, many of them pop up too frequently to feel special or of consequence. Some of them I actively avoid because they’re boring.

Kryta has too many centaur-themed events. Half or more of Kryta revolves around the Harathi centaurs. Thus, a significant amount of human zone content from levels 1 to 45 is centaurs. Players spend days fighting higher-level versions of the level 1 foes they fought in the tutorial.

I don’t want to spend every minute of my time fighting to kick centaurs out of town so that I can repair my armor that was damaged fighting centaurs in another town. Please make some more events to replace or share spawn chances with centaur events. Every zone feels the same and Kryta sucks by the time you reach level 30.

Everywhere you look, everywhere you turn. Every time you poke your head into a new zone seeking out new adventures and new challenges.

Centaurs.

Just… god kitten centaurs. Everywhere.

I would be completely shocked to discover that Zhaitan is anything other than a super secret Harathi shaman in an oversized zipper suit.

Sincerely
A centaur
A Krytan
A centaur
I can’t remember anymore

Just an update to this.

Immediately after posting I tried again, and after two more attempts here’s what happened.

The first time I had to run back as I described (it threw me outside of the cave in the Downed state), but the second time it just flat out said “You have been defeated, please continue from a checkpoint” etc., that message. The checkpoint was directly across the puzzle on the other side, so I didn’t even complete the puzzle, the game just passed me across.

I’m glad to have gotten across, but I’m upset about how it happened. I’d have liked to have been able to do it myself. Hopefully you guys take my advice and change the start up a little bit so that other players aren’t frustrated as much as I was.

There’s not really any spoilers here, but just in case people really do not want to know anything at all about personal story stuff they haven’t experienced yet, here it is.

SPOILER ALERT: If your character is not a member of the Durmand Priory, and if you don’t want to know anything at all about Durmond Priory adventuring, then DO NOT CONTINUE.

With that out of the way, this is more or less a complaint. I want to make it clear that I really enjoy everything about my character at this point and that I love Sieran to pieces. I’m a big fan of how my personal story has progressed thus far. Sure some of the adventures have been a challenge and sure some of the escapades have been rough, but I’ve enjoyed all of that. Any of the defeats that I have experienced up and to this point have been entirely of my own accord, either because I chose to enter a story at a lower level or because my equipment wasn’t up to par or even simply because I suck.

I’m okay with failing when things are entirely within my control. In fact I like failing when it’s 100% my fault because it means that I can learn and improve, and I often do. What I don’t like is failing due to circumstances wholly or partly out of my control. I don’t like failing when I’m expected to perform superhuman feats, or when I’m expected to have intimate knowledge of a puzzle or encounter from a designer’s point-of-view in order to proceed.

That’s how I feel with my current personal story instance, Bad Blood. I’ve spent two hours at the start of the mission trying to get past the initial puzzle. I don’t find that fun; I find that to be absolutely infuriating. The problem isn’t lag, and it’s not my inability to run in a straight line. The problem is camera angles, and a factor out of my control blowing me into a wedge I can’t get out of at the start without committing suicide if I’m unlucky enough to show up a few seconds early. On top of that, the problem is most of my time being spent on the ground reviving myself, running back to the puzzle, and trying to set up to try again, all of which consumes about 30-40 seconds of time on its own.

Basically: for every 3-5 seconds I actually challenge the dungeon, I spend 30-40 seconds doing nothing. That is not fun. I’m only posting about it because all of this could be avoided with two simple changes.

First, the starting pad needs to be protected from the wind. It’s frustrating when I’m a second late (due to not being able to keep track of the wind patterns, due to the long respawn fluff period) and I get tossed to my left into the “suicide crevasse”. It’s even more frustrating when the wind throws me into the back wall and my camera angle for resetting is basically the inside of my skull and some shoulder armor.

Second, there needs to be a flag or some sort of visible icon across the way. The torches aren’t very helpful (even though they’re supposed to be), so it’s hard to figure out what the wind’s status is. I don’t like having to rotate my camera up to check on a flag, rotate it back, and be expected to be able to move instantly. It doesn’t work. It’s too much to track at once.

It’s not that I’m incapable of completing the puzzle or incapable of learning, and it’s not like no one has ever completed the puzzle before. I understand that. The problem I have is that much of the challenge has been taken out of my hands and has been assigned almost entirely to random luck and bad mechanics.

Protecting just the starting pad from the wind would pretty much solve everything, as instead of sitting in a tiny doorway watching the flag from within my own skull and/or getting thrown into a ditch before I even begin the puzzle I’d actually be able to put my own skill to the test. Anything else would just be a bonus, but absolutely the starting pad should be changed up. Committing suicide because the game decides it’s time to sneeze isn’t fun. If the game kills me then fine, whatever; it’s the “go kill yourself” part that I don’t like. It’s basically as though the game is saying: “HA! You took 0.5 seconds too long, so now YOU have to kill YOURSELF, and waste a minute of your OWN time!” followed by an evil laugh.

This is the first time that I’ve done a personal story adventure and actually wished there was a skip button, and I’m not even actually in the adventure yet. I’m still at the first dialogue. Doesn’t that strike anyone as problematic? Again, the majority of my problem is the starting pad. Even if I do somehow finish the puzzle in its current state (and I’m sure that I will with a few more hours of practice) it would definitely help others out in the future, as I’m sure I’m not the only one that’s been frustrated by this.