4781

You still have to put a group together.

I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that a game named ‘Guild Wars’ requires a guild to do the PvE endgame ;) Still, this is an area where I hope ANet can close the gap in tools. There are excellent LFG systems in multiple games they can and should be adapting to this one.

4782

Agree. Anet needs to implement a system for those of us that don’t have anyone to play with.

I tried to enter the instance but the pain of finding a decent group just isn’t worth it.

4783

Do you think a random groups of pugs is gonna do well? These aren’t wow heroics.

4784

I’ve pugged about 5 of the fractal instances and most of the time it’s ok. I did spend about 30 minutes rezzing people who kept dying in the fire one (they simply could not get out of the way of the boulders). But I’ve also done them with a guild group - and it’s a large but somewhat casual guild -and it was better, but it wasn’t like 100 times easier to do.

So I wouldn’t write off pugs completely.

Though I was amazed that this morning at 7 AM someone was advertising “lfg 1 for fractals group, no noobs” - in a dungeon that’s been out about 18 hours. Some people…

4785

Well, to be fair, these dungeons aren’t gated by character level, are they? Players can’t do the other dungeons until they’ve spent 30+ levels getting to know their characters. I think the Fractals are theoretically open to anyone who’s just rolled up a character.

I’ve been mostly pleased with my experience with pick-up groups in dungeons, mostly because I’m usually the guy who doesn’t know the dungeon very well. I’ve also had zero problems finding groups by just watching the /map channel in Lion’s Arch for a few minutes.

-Tom

4786

I started with three people we knew, picked up two additional randoms… had a blast. It’s a hit or miss, but the first fractal was a hell of a lot of fun, and figuring things out was both frustrating and rewarding. These two “extras” worked out so well with being patient and not just bailing like I have seen in other dungeon groups when things don’t go perfectly. I just LFM in Lions Arch to get them. I should add first time through and no wikis, so it wasn’t as if any of us knew what we were doing.

4787

So, did the second event work? We stayed around in the overlflow of LA for a while with nothing happening; eventually I logged and played LOTRO using random dungeon finder there.

4788

The trebuchet overlooking the harbor was finished, a bunch of Karka appeared, including an Ancient one that couldn’t be killed (I was told this was on purpose) and they opened the passage to the new island. I went to the island and there was an event where the Lionguard was opening up the island by making roads, securing outposts and the like. It was an interesting way to show off the new zone.

One thing to keep in mind regarding events is that they don’t go off at the same time on all servers. I was in an overflow instance and the event happened on all the regular servers before it started in our overflow. So you may have just left before the instance went off (not that it was terribly exciting).

The new zone is pretty nice, however. Unlike the Orr zones, it’s bright and cheery. The veteran Karka that live there are pretty brutal. They do a sort of barrel roll that I’ve seen down 8 to 10 people who didn’t move out of the way in time. Plus you have to kill them twice - once to get the shell off, and the second time (which goes faster) once they’re de-shelled.

Plus it’s funny when the baby Karka grab on to you in facehugger fashion.

4789

Between the massively bugged events and their attitude of “Fuck you, we’re sticking to our schedule anyway”, the introduction of gear grind/power creep specifically against their design manifesto, and the asinine design of fractal tiers which are already fragmenting the potential pool of instance runners, it’s my opinion that this game is solidly fucked.

4790

It is not. There are some things that Anet needs to do better. Some things that are bugged and some things which I had never expected Anet to do. But to say this game is fucked it really exaggerating. I’m still having a lot of fun with just the content that was released in August.

4791

That’s been your opinion for going on two or three months now, and you keep voicing it over and over in this thread.

4792

Finished the Ancient Karka event, that was very, very long but a very nice chest at the end. I hope others had a chance to do the one time event. These Karka are pretty difficult in general. That end event was pretty much worth the dealing with the other bugs.

4793

I tried to participate but the game crashed on me twice- the first time we cleared out the bottom and I crashed. Upon restarting I found I was in an overflow server and the event was just starting again. I grinded the event again and managed to escort the demolition team back to the camp before crashing again. Upon logging in I found I was in another overflow server and was just in time to see the demolition team form up and begin to go in the caverns again. It was like an MMO version of Groundhog Day, except this protaganist said ‘bugger this’ and logged out.

4794

Yea, it seems ANet took all the complains about crappy rewards for events seriously. From the sounds of map chat, everyone got 2 random rares, 2 random exotics, plus the Karka chest which had a 20-slot box and an Ancient Karka Shell (+25 to all stats) inside. Although parts of the event were tedious, the end rewards more than made up for it.

4795

It was not just one big event. There were a few events, the last being the large fight with the Ancient. It was that event which gave you the chest. I crashed once during it, but still managed to get the chest. It was a really good event too. I mean we nearly wiped at least 3 times because of the challenge.

Yep, that is what I received anyway. I was most excited about the box, sad I am sure… the Karka Shell accessory was cool. Someone on our overflow received one of those named exotics that goes for about 100 gold.

4796

How is it fragmenting them? Maybe I’m misunderstanding your complaint, or maybe I’m misunderstanding how fractals work, but I don’t see any fragmenting. If I’m level 1 at the fractals, and you’re level 5, we can still group and the fractals will adjust to our pooled level. Then, once we’ve done three fractals, I’m level 2 and you’re level 6. How does that fragment anyone? Or do I have that wrong?

-Tom

4797

Yeah, that karka shell is pretty awesome. It was like a bit wet sloppy kiss at the end of all the tedium. :)

-Tom
4798

I dunno, I think the 20 slot bag was the most exciting thing I got from that event. 20 slots I can fill with junk! So much better than 8! Wow!

I didn’t have the connection trouble some people seemed to have, but I certainly suffered a lot of lag. I kept dying before anything even remotely threatening appeared on my screen until I figured I’d just stay in the back half of the zerg and let the other people dying in front of me warn me of my impending doom, haha.

I’m looking forward to more events, but maybe with smaller limits on the number of people in the area to reduce at least a little of the lag

4799

Darn missed this event due to work. No shell for me. :(

4800

You are kidding me. I get kicked from the events and they finally give out awesome rewards? But I’m still sorrowful with Sean- I couldn’t play beyond where I did because it was 8:15 am and I had to go to work. It’s a shame they couldn’t stagger events somehow and make sure that the big reward was only received once.