Guild Wars 2

I would like to point that instead of variety within in the instance it could also be outside of the instance.

Not that it would make much difference with current implementation.

I have duoed him with interrupts but never tried solo.

ArthurDent.9538:

Wethospu.6437:

HOTW2: ???

HOTW2 I suspect to be one of the easier dungeon paths to solo, I am planning on doing it on ele when I get a chance which should be soon and similar to warrior difficulty.

Underwater parts worry me a bit. But no idea.

Who cares about dungeons? LOL

I guess Melandru also gets labeled as “really annoying” then. :P

No, you should call me Braveheart.

Any estimation when this topic gets closed?

ACS is pretty easy (except lover part). CM3 is also quite easy. SES was also quite easy (iirc).

Hard to really recommend anything. While lots of encounters are quite easy pretty much every path has something which can be a pain in the kitten (unless you range). You should start with dungeons you are familiar with.

www.youtube.com/wethospu should be pretty thorough (bit old though, not that dungeons have changed much).

Then there is also this: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/links/Compilation-of-dungeon-solo-videos-3

List out of my memory (probably not 100% accurate):
ACS: doable
AC1: you need help with burrows
AC2: you need help with traps (or just bug Detha)
AC3: burrows might be problematic but should be doable
CMS: doable
CM1: doable but Bloody Victoria is really annoying
CM2: doable but you need tricks at keg part
CM3: doable
TAS: doable
TAF: doable
TAU: should be doable (annoying fight though)
TAAE: you need help with various parts
SES: doable
SE1: doable
SE2: no idea, probably very problematic
SE3: doable
COFS: doable
COF1: you need help with boulders and gate lock
COF2: you need help with bomb part, end might be rough
COF3: you need help with start and capture event, rest is doable
HOTWS: doable but end fight is quite tough
HOTW1: doable
HOTW2: ?
HOTW3: very hard fight at mid, ?
COES: you need help with hacking and who knows what else
COE1: you need help with lasers and hacking, alpha is really hard
COE2: you need help with lasers, alpha is really hard
COE3: you need help with lasers and destroyer, alpha is really hard
ARAHS: you need help with start, long but quite easy
ARAH1: you need help with shoggoroth
ARAH2: doable
ARAH3: doable
ARAH4: you need help with simin

Ok, let’s brainstorm and build.

.

..

…

Add pet armors to fractals.

Anyways, if my boss asked me to brainstorm I’m pretty sure he would want me to produce something useful and not random stuff.

Two Hundred Blades.

I appreciate your story but this seems more like a rant than a real question to me.

Lots of people can’t read so it doesn’t matter what you put in your lfg.

With requirement like that no one could ever party with me.

Pets and whatever won’t really make the content any better.

Also the game is really easy anyway.

Silberfisch.3046:

I actually liked where dutchiez and timmyf where going.
Their idea to keep the lower levels for those who just want to have seen everything experienced all lore and similar, and the higher levels for those who actually want content that taxes their gaming skills.
And that the scaling should not just include higher damage and HP on the mob’s side but new abilities and encounter mechanics to actually increase difficulty in an interesting way.

I’m quite confident that we will only see changes in early levels. Perhaps with a reset and max level lowered to 30. No one must feel left out.

I have about 5 times tried to promote my idea about fractal rework which in my opinion would fix lots of issues, promote variety. reduce time investment, reduce RNG, reduce stat scaling, add challenge and stuff like that. Zero dev comments.

But no, let’s focus instead on something which no one really cares about. Well, except people who maybe try fractals few times and then go back to the living story.

You seem to have messed up something.

With level 80 character I reseted my traits, went to lvl 66 area and put 100 trait points. I got 73 stat points which is exactly same as ratio between lvl 66 and lvl 80 base stat points.

Then I took my lvl 67 character, reseted his traits and put 100 trait points. I stayed at city so he didn’t get downscaled and he got exactly 100 points.

To calculate stats from traits correctly you need both original level and downscaled level.

Can you elaborate more? Stats scale same regardless of source so I don’t see what’s the issue.

Yes, you will get rewards based on your personal level.

Codes I use in gw2dungeons.net: http://pastebin.com/PpfGTjzB

Health = base health (profession) + vitality health (vitality).

Base health can be calculated by using the formula Kirin gave above (just check numbers from wiki as he copypasted bit too much).

Stat scaling is based on base stats. You can check wiki how many base stats you get each level. Then calculate base stats for wanted level (for example level 30 has 206 base stats) and divide by base stats at your level (level 80 has 916 base stats). For example 1000 vitality would be 1000 * 206 / 916 = 225 vitality at level 30.

To get health from vitality just multiply it by 10. For example 225 vitality gives 2250 health.

I just feel so disconnected. I thought it was obvious that the way to go should be harder challenges and deeper encounters.

But the stuff I see… I don’t want to talk about it.

Oh, level 51? How convenient.

28 pages of fractal CDI and I don’t think there has been any indication of adding hard content from the developer. Also interestingly he seems to spend a great effort to try make me look evil/stupid.

To be honest, I kind of expect the next fractal patch turn them to a magical casual wonderland.

Dub.1273:

You can join us, our (wethsopu’s) fashion is yet unmatched.

Reported for typoing my name.

Nick.6972:

Who remembers Shiro in GW1? Yeah. 2006 AI, now 8 years later, Arena Net still can’t achieve that.

Did it even have any AI or just powerful skills?

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Wethospu.6437:

shogei.8015:

Spoj The Second.7680:

Mikuchan.7261:

hendo.1940:

For goodness sake, stop with these puzzle suggestions, if you want to scare off what’s left of your dedicated fractal community, just throw in a bunch of obnoxious puzzles like all of the terrible suggestions in this thread and watch how nobody can be kitten d to do FOTM anymore because it will end up as Aetherpath 2.0 where it’s not worth the tedium.

For goodness sake be more constructive?
Also, the entire fractal community is doing a puzzle fractal as it’s first fractal constantly so I really don’t see the problem.
Yes, Swamp is a puzzle fractal, hate to break it to you.

Thats not the reason they do it though. Noone enjoys do the wisp puzzle. None of the pure invironmental puzzles are fun after doing them once. Puzzles arent replayable or repeatable. And even if you somehow make them randomly generated they will still eventually become boring because theres only so many iterations that can be generated. Fractals is a place where people go for difficult combat in pve. If you want environmental puzzles you should be doing jumping puzzles and guild puzzles not fractals.

I enjoy the heck out of the wisps puzzle, and not just because it is fast when you do it right. That fractal almost always gets my group laughing at ourselves. We then move on to shred whichever boss we are given.

The uncategorized fractal with it’s lightning staircase and harpies is also a blast – and a challenging set of fights.

Personally I would find 4 all-combat fractals in a row to be tiresome and boring. I suspect that the people on this thread, the ones suggesting all the puzzle fractals, would agree with me.

Sure, simple and shallow puzzles work wonders if you find lightning staircase challenging / interesting.

Luckily not everyone thinks like you or this game would be really really boring.

I agree with Shogei personally. There is nothing wrong with variety. We just have to make sure we get the balance right. Not sure about your final comment Wethospu simply because you don’t have access to metrics to show you just how many people do or don’t like this kind of content and in design assumption is very dangerous.

Chris

Variety is good. Shallow encounters, not so much. Variety and deep encounters are not exclusive so I can’t understand why people keep pushing only one of them.

Yes, without metrics I can only speak for myself. Hopefully I don’t need any metrics for that.

If your metrics show that people prefer shallow encounters then I suggest focusing more on the living story instead of fractals.

timmyf.1490:

If you previously argued that people shouldn’t complain about rolling because rolling doesn’t affect anybody but the people who are doing it, you should not be arguing against having two paths (Combat Path and Puzzle/Crafting Path) to complete parts of Fractals.

It’s the same story: it doesn’t affect you, you can still keep smashing face if you like.

Mandatory puzzles are a little different and I have mixed feelings about them. Sometimes these can be fun, but other times, it just feels like drudgery. I’ve never been a big fan of the spinning lasers in Aetherblade, for example. The Old Tom fight has tears which are an interesting mechanic.

I guess I’d say it this way: small puzzle mechanics that exist as a part of fights can make the fight more than a DPS race. Having puzzles that pull you out of the fighting for awhile until you complete them can seem like a chore.

That’s really naive.

When some people complained about rolling their issue was that they can’t play all maps or that they don’t want to know what map comes first. This is something they can clearly do on their own, no change needed.

However, situation would be different if people for example complained how people are able to get rewards or complete fractals too easily with rolling. This is clearly a global issue. If people can complete them too easily then rewards lose prestige.

Highly coordinated in crafting?

Purple Miku.7032:

—
Giganticus Lupicus
—
This game needs boss encounters like this.
—

Personally I don’t think it is a very good base. It’s a way too simple, easy and boring, even to solo.

Sorry, had to be said. :P

I would rather see multi-goal encounters with puzzle elements and lots of enemies. Along with the boss of course.

I almost made a post about combat being boring and how gold should have more uses in fractals. Like bribing bosses to die instantly (perhaps an item in gem store).

But I didn’t want to give them any ideas. Luckily they don’t read this forum.

I ate some mushrooms for lunch so this might be just me. But looks like devs are listening to him.

I will only support this if they also allow marriage between same gender. Just no human/animal/cabbage/alien stuff.

The reason why I hate pure puzzle encounters is that we could have combat with puzzle elements. For example we could have a boss in wisp area and you would have to use wisps to beat him.

But back to your reply. So far every puzzle is so shallow/easy that there is barely any need to think about builds. Yes, I use different skill set when running wisps than normally but loading condition removal, mobility and stun breaks isn’t very challenging. With combat elements you would have to make a decision between offensive and defensive skills.

If you get thrilled with using Mantra of Resolve instead of Null Field then I guess we just have to accept that we appreciate different things.

About alternative paths, while it’s a nice idea I would rather first see current encounters spiced up with more mechanics. I prefer quality over quantity.

People are seriously discussing about adding crafting to fractals in the CDI topic. I hope I’m just hallucinating but I fear the worst.

The Lost Witch.7601:

Wethospu.6437:

The gameplay is designed around combat. Every skill and stat (excluding magic find) is combat oriented. Also combat encounters scale.

Now let’s take a look at the wisp running. Most of your stats, gear or skills won’t matter at all. Also it doesn’t scale.

Which one has more room for innovation and tactics?

Well, the thing is:

We have many skills, traits and stats that don’t really come into play that much in general PvE. This is because fights are different from PvP fights. We simply don’t have to bother with many aspects of the combat system. (In fact, they’re often only counterproductive, making fights last longer)

To make other parts of the combat system shine, we need some ‘gimmicky’ situations that allow for these skills and traits to come into play. The swamp fractal for example, allows for excellent use of stuff like:

• Teleports
• Condition removal
• Stunbreakers
• Stealth

These are also used elsewhere in the game, but they are not as essential in generic combat situations as they are in the swamp fractal.

Of course the challenges shouldn’t all be complete gimmicks, but if we are to make full use of the skills and traits available to us, pure combat just won’t do.

You don’t really need any of those with the wisp running. Sure, they are useful but not essential.

Are you seriously saying that there is no way to add a combat encounter which would need condition removal, mobility/teleports, stunbreakers and stealth?

Nike.2631:

Except for the parts that aren’t. And there are LOT of them. I’ve never had to kill a vista point for example and some of my best loot has come from map completion.

I agree – since getting my crafting stats to 500 is how I’ve made 7 pieces of ascended gear, while killing things for weeks in WvW has only gotten me 2 Ascended chests.

Crafting is definitely a combat stat .
Puzzles scale too. Its not exactly hard to lower the time limit to do X, Y, and Z. In the example put forward earlier of out-climbing a rising lake of lava, you can change the rate at which the lava rises. Poof! Scalability.

The one with more imagination being applied to it.

I understand rambling is fun but could you try to stay on topic? Honestly not sure if you are just trolling at this point so I’m not going to waste my time.

phys.7689:

gameplay is also designed around movement /position/control. I also find it odd you are against environmental alternate paths, since a fairly large amount of the high level fractals are as much about avoiding bad fights/climbing side walls, etc. If i remember correctly you used such means when practicing your solo lupicus encounters?

—

As far as scaling content, i think environmental challenges can have mechanics that make it harder, like clock tower that spins faster and has water coming to get you. or enemies like harpies shooting you, etc.

—

Movement, position and control are all valid combat mechanics.

I’m not against alternative paths. I’m against randomness. More options players have, more choices they can make.

Could you elaborate more this “avoiding bad fights/climbing side walls”? In fractals most encounter aren’t skippable.

When I practiced Lupicus I soloed up to corrupting lights and then used a map glitch. I fail to see how this is relevant though.

Sure, puzzles can scale. However with a limited skill set it’s much harder to make them challenging. In my opinion the best way is to have a combat with puzzle elements. But then it’s not a pure puzzle anymore.

Nike.2631:

Spoj The Second.7680:

Thats not the reason they do it though. Noone enjoys do the wisp puzzle. None of the pure invironmental puzzles are fun after doing them once. Puzzles arent replayable or repeatable. And even if you somehow make them randomly generated they will still eventually become boring because theres only so many iterations that can be generated.

How is that different from the jellyfish boss? How are any of the combat encounters in fractals not wildly repetitive the 10th time? or the 50th?

I’m still enjoying guild puzzles. I think they have (a lot) more life than you’re giving them credit for.

The gameplay is designed around combat. Every skill and stat (excluding magic find) is combat oriented. Also combat encounters scale.

Now let’s take a look at the wisp running. Most of your stats, gear or skills won’t matter at all. Also it doesn’t scale.

Which one has more room for innovation and tactics?

They just tank it with Endure Pain / Defiant Stance.

Beldin.5498:

Examples of “too sexy” medium armor

I don’t see any shoulders.

I also have some suggestions. I can’t believe no one had these before because they are really really simple.

1) Fix world hunger
2) Cure cancer
3) Make everyone happy

Who agrees?

They just can’t press a button to add more fun / challenge / strategy or fix stacking / full zerk. Ideas are really worthless without any suggestion about the implementation.

But I agree on adding Erotic mode!

hendo.1940:

—
A little while ago I wrote on the lfg quite explicitly:

“Zerk + scholar runes only, experienced only, full clear”.

—
the obligatory warrior with ruby orbs. I had to tell them all to leave.
—

Do you also gearcheck for ascended?

hendo.1940:

soloing lupicus for groups sometimes provokes indifference, sometimes frustration (why didn’t you warbanner?) and sometimes you get people like this who are amazing:

http://i.imgur.com/nk4uWpr.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/SBmZpMb.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/St0MkUa.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/8inUiJZ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/C7FppSy.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/tj40vCk.jpg

and then another group

http://i.imgur.com/Xdk51Wx.jpg

Imagine how fun this was a year ago. When practically every group (exaggerating bit) was stuck on Lupicus.

Sure, everything is possible. But gameplay >> lore, so of course some warning bells start ringing when people talk about lore.

Tman.6349:

—
(let’s face it the FotM Lvls were just numbers otherwise and hold no inherent prestiege)
—

I think I’m going to play the “X is also just a number” card.

Even that issue would be solved by my rework idea (last time promotion as this closes soon).

I will list the main ideas:

• main difficulty from instabilities (and their combinations), less “artificial difficulty”
• additional stat scaling → infinite scaling while keeping expandability
• instabilities tied to maps → allows interesting instabilities, no rng
• one run consists of one map →map selection → less time required, no rng
• no rng → skill based content → allows higher difficulty
• each map has own progression → prevents instability skipping, multiple choices
• daily quests → encourages playing different maps every day

I don’t think NPC shield is that RNG anymore. At least when I soloed it, I had zero issues with the shield.

Lindbur.2537:

By the way, Weth is actually the student in the guild.

:>

Fixed.

Well, I might be a mentor if I really played the game.

I want my money back.

Play the game, not the UI!

Lord Kuru.3685:

I believe what happens is that there’s a gap in time between when Belka decides to fire the ball of death and when she actually fires it.

• The red circle is determined by your position and motion when she decides to fire.
• The actual trajectory of the projectile is determined by your position when she actually fires.

If your motion changed between this gap in time, then the red circle shows the wrong trajectory.

The red circle is determined by position but not movement while the actual attack is affect by both. Basically red circle only shows who is being targeted.

So if you see a red circle on you and you were moving, then just move to another direction.

ArthurDent.9538:

Best part is when she opts to randomly use the orb of death in melee range, and just insta kill you.

If you are moving towards here (especially with movement skills) and she is about to use it, then yes, it will hit at melee range.

If she hasn’t used it for a while then avoid using any gap closer on her.

Spoj The Second.7680:

@Orpheal

It really cant though. Why is that most players sit around in open world all the time? Because dungeons and fractals are too hard for them or they dont enjoy instanced group content. It makes no sense to put excessive amounts of lore in an area where the players who like challenging instanced content is dont care about it. And the players that want that lore would barely ever experience it. They would visit fractals once to get their lore fix and then never visit again. You cannot infect every aspect of the game with the wants of casual players. It doesnt work. You shouldnt lock away lore in an area of the game that many players who enjoy lore will not visit.

You can put lore into fractals, I dont mind that. But if it ruins replayability and brings down the challenge then im not going to be happy.

Sorry Spoj but I can’t agree with your elitist intentions. It’s good that casuals will finally get some content.

No worries, my fashion style still remains.

I think Maw should be improved as it’s much easier than other boss fractals. I really liked that fractal video where Maw shot huge beam at players so that would be a good base.

1) Maw shoots 1-X (scales) slowly moving ground targeted heavy damaging lasers. Lasers would gradually move faster and faster until a) Maw is hit or b) player gets defeated. Lasers should follow the closest target so you can reliably have a kiter/tank. When Maw is damaged lasers should reset to their original positions (different spots on the area).

2) Crystal idea can remain. Players have to grab crystals to absorb laser and throw it back at Maw. Crystals should have charges. Longer you absorb laser, more damage your throw does. This can be indicated with a separate buff, skill 1 changing its icon or even an adrenaline bar. Initial charge and charging speed should scale. At lower scales you get higher initial charge but charging speed is much slower.

3) If you charge your shield too much it will overheat and explode in few seconds knocking and dealing heavy damage to everyone around it. This also includes enemies so players can intentionally use it to destroy big enemy groups. Similarly Maw’s laser could have friendly fire.

4) Crystals should spawn from dead Jade Shards or Jade Colossii. Their amount should scale backwards (less enemies on higher scales but enough for constant crystal output). To compensate there would also be Irukandji and Tentacles (more and more on higher scales). All enemies should be buffed. Irukandji should get anti-skipping skills to keep people at laser. Colossii should have their damage buffed a lot but remove permanent reflecting. Shards and Tentacles are quite ok but could use 1-2 extra skills or faster animations. (Frenzy on Tentacle might be cool).

5) Time to kill should be balanced. At higher scales, less Jade enemies means less crystals. Also charging would be harder and you might be needed to overcharge on purpose. Maw’s health could scale backwards meaning less health on higher scales.

6) Damaging Maw could permanently destroy some lasers. For example with 5 lasers, every 25% or 33% he would lose one laser. This would allow higher initial amount meaning more hectic and challenging start for the fight.