Throughout the Tower of Nightmares, players will find smaller blossoms that resemble the tower’s heart. Within these chambers, players will experience their deepest fears and encounter twisted visions of their past.
OKAY SO
I'm working on National Novel Writing Month, so I have zero time to check this out, but... I am SERIOUSLY hoping that they bring back some of the choices we made in our Personal Story here. PLEASE, TORMENT ME WITH VISIONS OF POOR TYBALT'S ZOMBIE COMING BACK TO EAT ME OR SOMETHING, ANET. ANYTHING FOR REAL CONTINUITY.
I haven't played my ele that much in big stack-on-stack fights. Whoever recorded the video was generally staying away from her own stack, is that common? I push with them but this way makes sense too.
In my experience either strategy works. If i'm running with the stack I focus more on AOE's and heals, and if I'm staying away I tend to try and pick stranglers off/attack the tail of an enemy zerg. If you die a lot in stacks, stay on the outside. If not, then go with the stack.
EDIT: To actually answer your question, yes it's common. Usually I only notice it when I do it, but when I do I always see others taking on a similar strategy.
I haven't played my ele that much in big stack-on-stack fights. Whoever recorded the video was generally staying away from her own stack, is that common? I push with them but this way makes sense too.
In my experience either strategy works. If i'm running with the stack I focus more on AOE's and heals, and if I'm staying away I tend to try and pick stranglers off/attack the tail of an enemy zerg. If you die a lot in stacks, stay on the outside. If not, then go with the stack.
EDIT: To actually answer your question, yes it's common. Usually I only notice it when I do it, but when I do I always see others taking on a similar strategy.
Certain classes do not do well in the middle of the zerg. Rangers, thieves, etc. are at a big risk of just being rally-bait. Of course, this does depend on build. There are some possible strategies I've been thinking of to bust a zerg by using classes for specific roles in an engagement. The whole "ball up/zerg" mentality just strikes me as something that needs to get turned on its head. As for staying on the outside, I usually do something similar while trying to pursue priority targets that could give our team grief (necros, eles, mesmers, etc.). When my Ranger is a water field, I try to anticipate when mojo will need it and run into the scrum to drop it then get the hell out as soon as possible (protection on dodge is awesome for this).
Throughout the Tower of Nightmares, players will find smaller blossoms that resemble the tower’s heart. Within these chambers, players will experience their deepest fears and encounter twisted visions of their past.
OKAY SO
I'm working on National Novel Writing Month, so I have zero time to check this out, but... I am SERIOUSLY hoping that they bring back some of the choices we made in our Personal Story here. PLEASE, TORMENT ME WITH VISIONS OF POOR TYBALT'S ZOMBIE COMING BACK TO EAT ME OR SOMETHING, ANET. ANYTHING FOR REAL CONTINUITY.
From what I'm hearing this sort of thing is in there.
0
mojojoeoA block off the park, living the dream.Registered Userregular
Thieves are actually super good for zergs, so long as their positioning is good. Stay in shortbow and cluster bomb everything.
and blast all the fields. you only have like 6 on shortbow. If you hit water that way you just healed EVERYONE for over 6k. might be the best aoe heal in the game right there.
So people are saying that they did, in fact, get to fight a hallucination of Trahearne. But I don't remember doing that? When I did it the person who started the instance was Priory, so we fought not-Sieran, but I don't remember ever running into a not-Trahearne.
So people are saying that they did, in fact, get to fight a hallucination of Trahearne. But I don't remember doing that? When I did it the person who started the instance was Priory, so we fought not-Sieran, but I don't remember ever running into a not-Trahearne.
It might depend on your race. My Asura's killed Zojja like four times. Maybe only Sylvari get to kill treesus.
So people are saying that they did, in fact, get to fight a hallucination of Trahearne. But I don't remember doing that? When I did it the person who started the instance was Priory, so we fought not-Sieran, but I don't remember ever running into a not-Trahearne.
It might depend on your race. My Asura's killed Zojja like four times. Maybe only Sylvari get to kill treesus.
BRB rerolling all of my characters as Sylvari
+6
mojojoeoA block off the park, living the dream.Registered Userregular
Deciding on a weapon for elementalist is rather hard.
What aspect of the game anon?
if its group WVW staff is awesome in groups as you will regularly hear the cmd on ts3 ask for water. The static field nets you a billion tags in wvw as well.
Dagger dagger is great in smaller groups or if theres already a few staff eles. high mobility, lots of dps.
Also the preview art for next patch-
FRACTALS ooohhhhoooohhhhhhhhh
Everyday there out there doing frac-tals oooo oooooooooooooooooo
To the tune of ducktails theme.
mojojoeo on
Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
This is actually, in my opinion, the most coherent Living Story piece that I think Anet has done mechanics-wise. It's VERY difficult and requires you to be on your toes, but honest to god not the kind of thing that's just solvable by pouring more mans on it. Seriously! From what I played last night, the zerg rabble that don't know what they're doing tend to get wiped on level 1 of the Tower. Level 2 is more doable if you can actually get enough mans up there to complete it, while Level 3 isn't so much SEND IN ALL THE MANS as it is RUN LIKE HELL AND HOPE YOU DON'T FUCKING DIE. I was actually in the main instance on level 3 last night running with a very large zerg, and only about five of us out of a ball of 50 made it out. The map was a wall of bodies of people who made the mistake of stopping and trying to fight stuff.
Which is to say -- a coordinated group who knows what they're doing (eg, if you have guys who can blast Water and Fire and stay in a tight fast-moving zergball to ping-pong between the safe zones) you can probably clear Level 3, but an un-coordinated mob is going to die.
To me, it's a really nice balance between the JUST SEND MORE DUDES mentality of the Scarlett Invasions, and the YOU MUST DO EVERYTHING PRECISELY CORRECTLY OR DIE HORRIBLY mentality of the Zhaitan fight. It's hard, but not impossible; it requires careful thought. I did make it through in one try, but I felt like I had to WORK for it, and really be on top of my build.*
AND THEN THERE'S THE PODS!!!
Okay, so, holy crap encountering Sierian and having her blame me for not getting to live out her life was actually genuinely upsetting. I'm glad I can at least take my Sylvari Necro up in there since she's about level 70 now, because oh god Tybalt
I'm glad you also get to fight your Destiny's Edge guy, depending...
AND! Last night, somebody else heard Scarlett saying to their Charr something along the lines of, "Heard from your father lately...? How's his recovery going?," referencing, I think, the Honorless Gladium storyline, though I guess it could refer to the other two as well, if she's being REALLY awful to you. Hell, if you chose to kill your dad in the Honorless Gladium storyline, that's also just like, WOW.
Has anyone else heard anything like that? I'm ESPECIALLY interested to know if the Asura Infinity Ball storyline ever gets referenced, since in that story it's YOU who are ALMOST LITERALLY Scarlett Briar, right down to attacking Divinity's Reach. It sucks, because my own Asura is only level 45, and I don't think there's any way she'd survive the Tower with her gear and build, given that my tricked out Engineer barely made it through.
Point being: I'm SO GLAD that pieces of your personal story are FINALLY making some sort of a comeback, that they're acknowledging this. I hope this becomes a trend.
THINGS I DON'T LIKE ABOUT THIS UPDATE
> Scarlett gets worse and worse as a villain as time goes on. Like, we ALL know this, we ALL agree with this. She was interesting when she was just a psychotic terrorist with crazy delusions about the Eternal Alchemy and the Pale Tree, but now it's approaching levels that just plain don't make any fucking sense. Also, Scarlett, you are NOT David Xanatos, you don't get to say TEE HEE~ ALL GOING AS PLANNED NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO~ I hate that she OH HO ESCAPES~~~ AGAIN.
> I don't like that in the end the Krait are portrayed as stupid dupes brainwashed by the Nightmare Court & Scarlett Briar. The game went to GREAT LENGTHS to remind us that Krait aren't simple savages; that while their culture is alien, xenophobic, and straight up evil, that they're not simple brutes -- they have great skill in architecture, engineering, and mathematics. It's pretty gross to have a group like that reduced down to basically "Lol, deluded water-orcs who think that weird bioengineered thing is their God! hurr hurr :V " I would have much preferred that they have more agency, or that maybe even one of the Krait in themselves was like "Yeah, I know that ain't a real Prophet, but hell, fuck my OWN people! It's good enough for ME."
> I'm really confused about the hallucinations since everyone can attack them? Are they partially real or what? Derrrrrr? And why the hell are we hallucinating Aetherblades and shit, does Scarlett really have THAT much control?
QUESTIONS
> Who the hell was the Mesmer who put up that giant illusion at the beginning that was hiding the Tower? Because it sure wasn't Scarlett, she's an Engineer, iirc. And it's not the Krait, their magic is Different. Was it the Toxic Baron and Baroness? Someone else from the Nightmare Court?
CONCLUSIONS?
Still think that the Zephyrites were the most coherent update story-wise, but this update really does hit a nice sweet spot in terms of stuff you can do, and actually acknowledging the Personal Story is AWESOME and I hope they keep doing it.
*e* ALSO I am genuinely wondering if anyone's compiled a list of personal story references in the Tower yet? I really want to know.
For those going through the tower, unless you think you can survive running through the place with lots of mobs on you who tend to use CC while you maintain that toxic debuff which spawns illusions, fight your way up with even 1 other person while standing around those purifiers on the ground. They will clear the toxic debuff which also stops hallucinations from spawning on you.
Just about everything in the tower scales up with people, so if you have a zerg run by, consider running with them since they just scaled everything in the area up.
If you find an event other than the champion spider queen, the events almost always block your path going forward so you are required to clear it.
Throughout the tower, I highly recommend having at least one stun breaker on you and I recommend not using the new heal ability we got with the living story. You can use that heal during instances and that's ok, but if you're not standing around a purifier in the tower, using your sub-optimal healing skill to remove the debuff won't help since you'll get it again in a second.
+2
mojojoeoA block off the park, living the dream.Registered Userregular
wooden [potatoes patch over view has a good idea.... we should guild run the tower. It takes a bunch of folks to make it safely.... maybe a Wednesday or Saturday night we run it together and get everyone to top after missions?
Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
Honestly, I think that would be a good idea. It'll also be pretty fun. If you aren't fighting your way up, or running with a zerg that chooses to fight almost everything, I think it's a miserable experience.
With so many people wanting to run to the top, there's a lot of people having miserable experiences in that tower I'd guess. I was one of them before I decided to start fighting my way up.
I'm glad there's apparently something interesting in the chambers, since so far my wife and I have only seen hallucinations of various things already fought (Aetherblades, Twisted Watchworks, etc). Hopefully having more than one person in there doesn't prevent you from seeing the more personal stuff.
Deciding on a weapon for elementalist is rather hard.
What aspect of the game anon?
if its group WVW staff is awesome in groups as you will regularly hear the cmd on ts3 ask for water. The static field nets you a billion tags in wvw as well.
Dagger dagger is great in smaller groups or if theres already a few staff eles. high mobility, lots of dps.
This is really the issue, I'm still deciding what style I want to specialize into.
I'm glad there's apparently something interesting in the chambers, since so far my wife and I have only seen hallucinations of various things already fought (Aetherblades, Twisted Watchworks, etc). Hopefully having more than one person in there doesn't prevent you from seeing the more personal stuff.
Def. not. I ran with Lokiurnus (sp?) and because I went in first, we saw my personal story stuff.
That being said, if you haven't actually DONE any of the personal story, it might not trigger, because you haven't flipped the flags yet. So uh... at least choose an Order, I guess?
I recommend not using the new heal ability we got with the living story. You can use that heal during instances and that's ok, but if you're not standing around a purifier in the tower, using your sub-optimal healing skill to remove the debuff won't help since you'll get it again in a second.
Healing ability you say.
I'm guessing that it would help with the last boss seeing as its 100% illusions 110% of the time.
0
mojojoeoA block off the park, living the dream.Registered Userregular
edited November 2013
a cordial reminder- WVW is an hour earlier on fridays due to daylight savings- you should rally at 745 est
We will need to be on time as it'll be packed. The normal hype post will remind you of this and the writing competition on Thursday.
mojojoeo on
Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
With regard to the Living Story and Scarlet, there is some really solid constructive criticism about it in the Living World "collaborative development" thread and in the Living World forums in general (also some nonconstructive stuff, but then they are official forums). The responses from devs seem to indicate ANet are learning as they go and they know they can improve. So that is something. I think they really do need to improve, especially with regard to characterization of key characters and pacing/presentation of the story, so I'll look forward to seeing how things go.
The biggest reason why we introduced new characters for Living World story content was because we weren’t able to separate the Personal Story and Living World timelines and characters. So while we could have used iconics or existing characters more liberally in the Living World releases, we couldn’t put them through any meaningful changes because it could potentially break continuity elsewhere.
If you create a character that has no dependencies to existing content then you have a lot fewer restrictions in how you use them. The good news is that we’re taking steps to address this very concern and we’ll be sharing more details on our solution in the coming months.
Explains why we have this seemingly random villain, although I don't think it excuses the way she has been written. I'm curious about that last sentence though.
I think those collaborative development threads were a great idea on the whole.
I recommend not using the new heal ability we got with the living story. You can use that heal during instances and that's ok, but if you're not standing around a purifier in the tower, using your sub-optimal healing skill to remove the debuff won't help since you'll get it again in a second.
Healing ability you say.
I'm guessing that it would help with the last boss seeing as its 100% illusions 110% of the time.
So there's a new condition with the living story stuff, it's a toxin, looks like a purple square with a white etched leaf in it I think? Anyhow, the new heal (which can be bought in your skills panel for 25 skill points) isn't a great heal, but it clears this toxin, poison and confusion from you and nearby allies.
While under the effects of the toxin, your screen may look like you have semi-blackouts or acid trippy colors show up, but you'll also have hallucinations spawn on you. Stay away from those flowers the last boss throw up, they stack that toxin on you. Either kill them, or avoid their circles.
With regard to the Living Story and Scarlet, there is some really solid constructive criticism about it in the Living World "collaborative development" thread and in the Living World forums in general (also some nonconstructive stuff, but then they are official forums). The responses from devs seem to indicate ANet are learning as they go and they know they can improve. So that is something. I think they really do need to improve, especially with regard to characterization of key characters and pacing/presentation of the story, so I'll look forward to seeing how things go.
The biggest reason why we introduced new characters for Living World story content was because we weren’t able to separate the Personal Story and Living World timelines and characters. So while we could have used iconics or existing characters more liberally in the Living World releases, we couldn’t put them through any meaningful changes because it could potentially break continuity elsewhere.
If you create a character that has no dependencies to existing content then you have a lot fewer restrictions in how you use them. The good news is that we’re taking steps to address this very concern and we’ll be sharing more details on our solution in the coming months.
Explains why we have this seemingly random villain, although I don't think it excuses the way she has been written. I'm curious about that last sentence though.
I think those collaborative development threads were a great idea on the whole.
I think you're right. They HAVE already come a long way since Southsun Cove, THAT'S for sure.
I think that the Hallucinations and the Personal Story stuff that's come up during that is their first tentative baby step towards this. I actually think you can really see an iterative progression in terms of the way they handle this stuff. The first Mad King's Labyrinth was a prototype of these big zergfest events, while Zephyr Sanctum was their first foray into SUPER VERTICAL content. Having Personal Story choices come up during a Living Story event, albeit in the form of instanced and hallucinatory areas, is one baby step towards integrating Personal Story.
I didn't have any problems running level 3. The main problems I had were people trying to suicide rush the thing.
Fighting through it was a much smarter approach I found. We got through it with a pug group of 10 people without losing anyone - even having to do the blocking event. If you kill the vets, heal up at the safe spot and move through it methodically making sure you get downed people up before they die its really manageable.
The people that tried to just run through the whole thing were the ones that died over and over on level 3. Support abilities that help other people are also great for this sort of thing, even though not commonly run.
0
mojojoeoA block off the park, living the dream.Registered Userregular
Im a start up WVW roun 8 est tonight.
All interested should inqure in gchat and ts3 at that time.
Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
0
Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
If its still going later, I will try to latch on.
I would think late wed night wont have a huge queue.
Also, Scarlett, you are NOT David Xanatos, you don't get to say TEE HEE~ ALL GOING AS PLANNED NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO~ I hate that she OH HO ESCAPES~~~ AGAIN.
+1 for Gargoyles reference.
I'm going to try to get into wuv tonight. I'm leaving for home in about 2 hours, hopefully there will still be something going on.
0
BethrynUnhappiness is MandatoryRegistered Userregular
I think we can all now accept that it wasn't a Margonite, by the way.
...and of course, as always, Kill Hitler.
0
mojojoeoA block off the park, living the dream.Registered Userregular
This latest update has finally given me my "I don't know what everyone is complaining about" moment.
I run a a full shout/warhorn warrior for wuv wuv, so I routinely carry 4 cleanses, stability, swiftness, stun breaks, and a pile of hit points. Which makes it easy as pie to sprint through the tower. I just pretend a zerg is chasing me!
Oh freddled gruntbuggly...thy micturations are to me/ As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee
This latest update has finally given me my "I don't know what everyone is complaining about" moment.
I run a a full shout/warhorn warrior for wuv wuv, so I routinely carry 4 cleanses, stability, swiftness, stun breaks, and a pile of hit points. Which makes it easy as pie to sprint through the tower. I just pretend a zerg is chasing me!
To be fair, you're also talking about the one class above and beyond thief who can run from any engagement they do not want to be in in wvw or anything else.
Also keep in mind, for every person you pass by, you've scaled every mob up on them. So if they are fighting, or exhausted all of their mobility/escape resources at the moment, you just made their life tougher.
I typically play a mesmer or ranger for PvE stuff like this. Compared to almost any class, a mesmer doesn't really have a lot mobility options. Limited stealth and blink. Rangers have access to one source of stability which is their elite skill and their leap with greatsword for mobility. Neither are heavy armor classes and both have 3.2K less base HP than warrior.
For some of the issues people encounter, being prepared is almost certainly a significant part of it. But remember, you're playing a class that is constantly being pointed at due to being high mobility, high damage, high CC and high survivability in more scenarios than any other class out there.
EDIT: Also, a lot of this content is simply made for people who are close or at level 80. I ran up the tower helping some lv 20 folks at one point and their life is incredibly tough in this tower. They scale everything up the same and yet, they lose out on the benefit that up to 70 trait points can bring you along with most of them using blues or greens that aren't at their level for gear. So not only is that up to 1400 stat points they are missing out on, they are also using gear that isn't exotic (10-15% less stats/ac/damage with greens/blues respectively and 2% less for every level their gear is behind their actual level).
I think they're starting to deliberately troll us with Scarlet at this point. Like, the cutscene in the top-of-the-tower dungeon features good old-fashioned cutscene incompetence (warning: tvtropes) as we watch helplessly frozen in place while Scarlet casually strolls into her portal and escapes.
This latest update has finally given me my "I don't know what everyone is complaining about" moment.
I run a a full shout/warhorn warrior for wuv wuv, so I routinely carry 4 cleanses, stability, swiftness, stun breaks, and a pile of hit points. Which makes it easy as pie to sprint through the tower. I just pretend a zerg is chasing me!
To be fair, you're also talking about the one class above and beyond thief who can run from any engagement they do not want to be in in wvw or anything else.
Also keep in mind, for every person you pass by, you've scaled every mob up on them. So if they are fighting, or exhausted all of their mobility/escape resources at the moment, you just made their life tougher.
I typically play a mesmer or ranger for PvE stuff like this. Compared to almost any class, a mesmer doesn't really have a lot mobility options. Limited stealth and blink. Rangers have access to one source of stability which is their elite skill and their leap with greatsword for mobility. Neither are heavy armor classes and both have 3.2K less base HP than warrior.
For some of the issues people encounter, being prepared is almost certainly a significant part of it. But remember, you're playing a class that is constantly being pointed at due to being high mobility, high damage, high CC and high survivability in more scenarios than any other class out there.
EDIT: Also, a lot of this content is simply made for people who are close or at level 80. I ran up the tower helping some lv 20 folks at one point and their life is incredibly tough in this tower. They scale everything up the same and yet, they lose out on the benefit that up to 70 trait points can bring you along with most of them using blues or greens that aren't at their level for gear. So not only is that up to 1400 stat points they are missing out on, they are also using gear that isn't exotic (10-15% less stats/ac/damage with greens/blues respectively and 2% less for every level their gear is behind their actual level).
I am aware and agree with you 100%. The upleveling is doing a bit of a disservice to people in that they're allowed into the content, but are no more able to do it than if they were kept at level. Other professions, or even other specs within warrior (banners) will struggle to get to the top because they don't have the same tools. I haven't tried it with my elementalist precisely because I know it's going to be a much bigger headache.
As far as scaling goes, I'm not sure it counts non-participating players, so I'm not convinced that zipping by someone ruins their day. I *am* however sensitive to the possibility of training a new mob on to them. I make sure to stop for downed people and shout at people as I go by. What I do, realistically, is try to pick up a party at the bottom and shout/warhorn them to the top because all my stuff is AOE.
Mostly my post above was marveling that new content perfectly suited my existing build (which can be summarized as "never ever die" as opposed to the more popular PVE style of "kill everything before it can kill you") and was intended to be tongue in cheek.
OhtheVogonity on
Oh freddled gruntbuggly...thy micturations are to me/ As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee
This latest update has finally given me my "I don't know what everyone is complaining about" moment.
I run a a full shout/warhorn warrior for wuv wuv, so I routinely carry 4 cleanses, stability, swiftness, stun breaks, and a pile of hit points. Which makes it easy as pie to sprint through the tower. I just pretend a zerg is chasing me!
To be fair, you're also talking about the one class above and beyond thief who can run from any engagement they do not want to be in in wvw or anything else.
Also keep in mind, for every person you pass by, you've scaled every mob up on them. So if they are fighting, or exhausted all of their mobility/escape resources at the moment, you just made their life tougher.
I typically play a mesmer or ranger for PvE stuff like this. Compared to almost any class, a mesmer doesn't really have a lot mobility options. Limited stealth and blink. Rangers have access to one source of stability which is their elite skill and their leap with greatsword for mobility. Neither are heavy armor classes and both have 3.2K less base HP than warrior.
For some of the issues people encounter, being prepared is almost certainly a significant part of it. But remember, you're playing a class that is constantly being pointed at due to being high mobility, high damage, high CC and high survivability in more scenarios than any other class out there.
EDIT: Also, a lot of this content is simply made for people who are close or at level 80. I ran up the tower helping some lv 20 folks at one point and their life is incredibly tough in this tower. They scale everything up the same and yet, they lose out on the benefit that up to 70 trait points can bring you along with most of them using blues or greens that aren't at their level for gear. So not only is that up to 1400 stat points they are missing out on, they are also using gear that isn't exotic (10-15% less stats/ac/damage with greens/blues respectively and 2% less for every level their gear is behind their actual level).
I am aware and agree with you 100%. The upleveling is doing a bit of a disservice to people in that they're allowed into the content, but are no more able to do it than if they were kept at level. Other professions, or even other specs within warrior (banners) will struggle to get to the top because they don't have the same tools. I haven't tried it with my elementalist precisely because I know it's going to be a much bigger headache.
As far as scaling goes, I'm not sure it counts non-participating players, so I'm not convinced that zipping by someone ruins their day. I *am* however sensitive to the possibility of training a new mob on to them. I make sure to stop for downed people and shout at people as I go by. What I do, realistically, is try to pick up a party at the bottom and shout/warhorn them to the top because all my stuff is AOE.
Mostly my post above was marveling that new content perfectly suited my existing build (which can be summarized as "never ever die" as opposed to the more popular PVE style of "kill everything before it can kill you") and was intended to be tongue in cheek.
Some of us (me) can also be somewhat bitter about warriors as well from time to time. Yesterday I went to the EB jump puzzle to give portals. I beat up some stupid warrior 4 times, but I could never catch him as he ran away from me or through me. So while he ran away 4/4 encounters, I never could kill him.
I've found that the safest way up isn't the fastest, run with a group, fight stuff and try to stay close or in those purified areas. As soon as that toxin duelist or whatever shows up and hits you with a 4s knockdown followed by a 2-3s knockback/knockdown, a lot of us are already screwed.
I actually like that it's hard to get through the tower, and that (most) people have to work together to pull it off. Game needs more challenging PvE content IMO, especially open-world PvE content.
Posts
I'm working on National Novel Writing Month, so I have zero time to check this out, but... I am SERIOUSLY hoping that they bring back some of the choices we made in our Personal Story here. PLEASE, TORMENT ME WITH VISIONS OF POOR TYBALT'S ZOMBIE COMING BACK TO EAT ME OR SOMETHING, ANET. ANYTHING FOR REAL CONTINUITY.
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
In my experience either strategy works. If i'm running with the stack I focus more on AOE's and heals, and if I'm staying away I tend to try and pick stranglers off/attack the tail of an enemy zerg. If you die a lot in stacks, stay on the outside. If not, then go with the stack.
EDIT: To actually answer your question, yes it's common. Usually I only notice it when I do it, but when I do I always see others taking on a similar strategy.
Certain classes do not do well in the middle of the zerg. Rangers, thieves, etc. are at a big risk of just being rally-bait. Of course, this does depend on build. There are some possible strategies I've been thinking of to bust a zerg by using classes for specific roles in an engagement. The whole "ball up/zerg" mentality just strikes me as something that needs to get turned on its head. As for staying on the outside, I usually do something similar while trying to pursue priority targets that could give our team grief (necros, eles, mesmers, etc.). When my Ranger is a water field, I try to anticipate when mojo will need it and run into the scrum to drop it then get the hell out as soon as possible (protection on dodge is awesome for this).
From what I'm hearing this sort of thing is in there.
data miners found craftable precursors.
pink quaggan finishers.
I called this. I said that as soon as a got my precursor, the next patch would introduce craftable ones. Like clockwork.
and blast all the fields. you only have like 6 on shortbow. If you hit water that way you just healed EVERYONE for over 6k. might be the best aoe heal in the game right there.
Its why i have drug feet on second one.
The quest will require books, multi volume books that explain the history of the ledgendary which is cool. Lore in the actual game. Seriously?!?
BRB rerolling all of my characters as Sylvari
What aspect of the game anon?
if its group WVW staff is awesome in groups as you will regularly hear the cmd on ts3 ask for water. The static field nets you a billion tags in wvw as well.
Dagger dagger is great in smaller groups or if theres already a few staff eles. high mobility, lots of dps.
Also the preview art for next patch
FRACTALS ooohhhhoooohhhhhhhhh
Everyday there out there doing frac-tals oooo oooooooooooooooooo
So also some stuff about da updaet!
This is actually, in my opinion, the most coherent Living Story piece that I think Anet has done mechanics-wise. It's VERY difficult and requires you to be on your toes, but honest to god not the kind of thing that's just solvable by pouring more mans on it. Seriously! From what I played last night, the zerg rabble that don't know what they're doing tend to get wiped on level 1 of the Tower. Level 2 is more doable if you can actually get enough mans up there to complete it, while Level 3 isn't so much SEND IN ALL THE MANS as it is RUN LIKE HELL AND HOPE YOU DON'T FUCKING DIE. I was actually in the main instance on level 3 last night running with a very large zerg, and only about five of us out of a ball of 50 made it out. The map was a wall of bodies of people who made the mistake of stopping and trying to fight stuff.
Which is to say -- a coordinated group who knows what they're doing (eg, if you have guys who can blast Water and Fire and stay in a tight fast-moving zergball to ping-pong between the safe zones) you can probably clear Level 3, but an un-coordinated mob is going to die.
To me, it's a really nice balance between the JUST SEND MORE DUDES mentality of the Scarlett Invasions, and the YOU MUST DO EVERYTHING PRECISELY CORRECTLY OR DIE HORRIBLY mentality of the Zhaitan fight. It's hard, but not impossible; it requires careful thought. I did make it through in one try, but I felt like I had to WORK for it, and really be on top of my build.*
AND THEN THERE'S THE PODS!!!
I'm glad you also get to fight your Destiny's Edge guy, depending...
AND! Last night, somebody else heard Scarlett saying to their Charr something along the lines of, "Heard from your father lately...? How's his recovery going?," referencing, I think, the Honorless Gladium storyline, though I guess it could refer to the other two as well, if she's being REALLY awful to you. Hell, if you chose to kill your dad in the Honorless Gladium storyline, that's also just like, WOW.
Has anyone else heard anything like that? I'm ESPECIALLY interested to know if the Asura Infinity Ball storyline ever gets referenced, since in that story it's YOU who are ALMOST LITERALLY Scarlett Briar, right down to attacking Divinity's Reach. It sucks, because my own Asura is only level 45, and I don't think there's any way she'd survive the Tower with her gear and build, given that my tricked out Engineer barely made it through.
Point being: I'm SO GLAD that pieces of your personal story are FINALLY making some sort of a comeback, that they're acknowledging this. I hope this becomes a trend.
THINGS I DON'T LIKE ABOUT THIS UPDATE
> Scarlett gets worse and worse as a villain as time goes on. Like, we ALL know this, we ALL agree with this. She was interesting when she was just a psychotic terrorist with crazy delusions about the Eternal Alchemy and the Pale Tree, but now it's approaching levels that just plain don't make any fucking sense. Also, Scarlett, you are NOT David Xanatos, you don't get to say TEE HEE~ ALL GOING AS PLANNED NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO~ I hate that she OH HO ESCAPES~~~ AGAIN.
> I don't like that in the end the Krait are portrayed as stupid dupes brainwashed by the Nightmare Court & Scarlett Briar. The game went to GREAT LENGTHS to remind us that Krait aren't simple savages; that while their culture is alien, xenophobic, and straight up evil, that they're not simple brutes -- they have great skill in architecture, engineering, and mathematics. It's pretty gross to have a group like that reduced down to basically "Lol, deluded water-orcs who think that weird bioengineered thing is their God! hurr hurr :V " I would have much preferred that they have more agency, or that maybe even one of the Krait in themselves was like "Yeah, I know that ain't a real Prophet, but hell, fuck my OWN people! It's good enough for ME."
> I'm really confused about the hallucinations since everyone can attack them? Are they partially real or what? Derrrrrr? And why the hell are we hallucinating Aetherblades and shit, does Scarlett really have THAT much control?
QUESTIONS
> Who the hell was the Mesmer who put up that giant illusion at the beginning that was hiding the Tower? Because it sure wasn't Scarlett, she's an Engineer, iirc. And it's not the Krait, their magic is Different. Was it the Toxic Baron and Baroness? Someone else from the Nightmare Court?
CONCLUSIONS?
Still think that the Zephyrites were the most coherent update story-wise, but this update really does hit a nice sweet spot in terms of stuff you can do, and actually acknowledging the Personal Story is AWESOME and I hope they keep doing it.
*e* ALSO I am genuinely wondering if anyone's compiled a list of personal story references in the Tower yet? I really want to know.
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
Just about everything in the tower scales up with people, so if you have a zerg run by, consider running with them since they just scaled everything in the area up.
If you find an event other than the champion spider queen, the events almost always block your path going forward so you are required to clear it.
Throughout the tower, I highly recommend having at least one stun breaker on you and I recommend not using the new heal ability we got with the living story. You can use that heal during instances and that's ok, but if you're not standing around a purifier in the tower, using your sub-optimal healing skill to remove the debuff won't help since you'll get it again in a second.
With so many people wanting to run to the top, there's a lot of people having miserable experiences in that tower I'd guess. I was one of them before I decided to start fighting my way up.
This is really the issue, I'm still deciding what style I want to specialize into.
Def. not. I ran with Lokiurnus (sp?) and because I went in first, we saw my personal story stuff.
That being said, if you haven't actually DONE any of the personal story, it might not trigger, because you haven't flipped the flags yet. So uh... at least choose an Order, I guess?
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
Healing ability you say.
We will need to be on time as it'll be packed. The normal hype post will remind you of this and the writing competition on Thursday.
One particularly interesting post was by the lead writer, here: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Collaborative-Development-Topic-Living-World/3191642
Explains why we have this seemingly random villain, although I don't think it excuses the way she has been written. I'm curious about that last sentence though.
I think those collaborative development threads were a great idea on the whole.
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
So there's a new condition with the living story stuff, it's a toxin, looks like a purple square with a white etched leaf in it I think? Anyhow, the new heal (which can be bought in your skills panel for 25 skill points) isn't a great heal, but it clears this toxin, poison and confusion from you and nearby allies.
While under the effects of the toxin, your screen may look like you have semi-blackouts or acid trippy colors show up, but you'll also have hallucinations spawn on you. Stay away from those flowers the last boss throw up, they stack that toxin on you. Either kill them, or avoid their circles.
I think you're right. They HAVE already come a long way since Southsun Cove, THAT'S for sure.
I think that the Hallucinations and the Personal Story stuff that's come up during that is their first tentative baby step towards this. I actually think you can really see an iterative progression in terms of the way they handle this stuff. The first Mad King's Labyrinth was a prototype of these big zergfest events, while Zephyr Sanctum was their first foray into SUPER VERTICAL content. Having Personal Story choices come up during a Living Story event, albeit in the form of instanced and hallucinatory areas, is one baby step towards integrating Personal Story.
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
Fighting through it was a much smarter approach I found. We got through it with a pug group of 10 people without losing anyone - even having to do the blocking event. If you kill the vets, heal up at the safe spot and move through it methodically making sure you get downed people up before they die its really manageable.
The people that tried to just run through the whole thing were the ones that died over and over on level 3. Support abilities that help other people are also great for this sort of thing, even though not commonly run.
All interested should inqure in gchat and ts3 at that time.
I would think late wed night wont have a huge queue.
+1 for Gargoyles reference.
I'm going to try to get into wuv tonight. I'm leaving for home in about 2 hours, hopefully there will still be something going on.
Because anytime we try and guess we guess better than they csn provide?
I run a a full shout/warhorn warrior for wuv wuv, so I routinely carry 4 cleanses, stability, swiftness, stun breaks, and a pile of hit points. Which makes it easy as pie to sprint through the tower. I just pretend a zerg is chasing me!
To be fair, you're also talking about the one class above and beyond thief who can run from any engagement they do not want to be in in wvw or anything else.
Also keep in mind, for every person you pass by, you've scaled every mob up on them. So if they are fighting, or exhausted all of their mobility/escape resources at the moment, you just made their life tougher.
I typically play a mesmer or ranger for PvE stuff like this. Compared to almost any class, a mesmer doesn't really have a lot mobility options. Limited stealth and blink. Rangers have access to one source of stability which is their elite skill and their leap with greatsword for mobility. Neither are heavy armor classes and both have 3.2K less base HP than warrior.
For some of the issues people encounter, being prepared is almost certainly a significant part of it. But remember, you're playing a class that is constantly being pointed at due to being high mobility, high damage, high CC and high survivability in more scenarios than any other class out there.
EDIT: Also, a lot of this content is simply made for people who are close or at level 80. I ran up the tower helping some lv 20 folks at one point and their life is incredibly tough in this tower. They scale everything up the same and yet, they lose out on the benefit that up to 70 trait points can bring you along with most of them using blues or greens that aren't at their level for gear. So not only is that up to 1400 stat points they are missing out on, they are also using gear that isn't exotic (10-15% less stats/ac/damage with greens/blues respectively and 2% less for every level their gear is behind their actual level).
I am aware and agree with you 100%. The upleveling is doing a bit of a disservice to people in that they're allowed into the content, but are no more able to do it than if they were kept at level. Other professions, or even other specs within warrior (banners) will struggle to get to the top because they don't have the same tools. I haven't tried it with my elementalist precisely because I know it's going to be a much bigger headache.
As far as scaling goes, I'm not sure it counts non-participating players, so I'm not convinced that zipping by someone ruins their day. I *am* however sensitive to the possibility of training a new mob on to them. I make sure to stop for downed people and shout at people as I go by. What I do, realistically, is try to pick up a party at the bottom and shout/warhorn them to the top because all my stuff is AOE.
Mostly my post above was marveling that new content perfectly suited my existing build (which can be summarized as "never ever die" as opposed to the more popular PVE style of "kill everything before it can kill you") and was intended to be tongue in cheek.
The poor quality of the living story has everything to do with the marginalization of the Norn.
This game needs more drinking, feasting, and keg brawl. Haven't they noticed how popular the NFL is?
Some of us (me) can also be somewhat bitter about warriors as well from time to time. Yesterday I went to the EB jump puzzle to give portals. I beat up some stupid warrior 4 times, but I could never catch him as he ran away from me or through me. So while he ran away 4/4 encounters, I never could kill him.
I've found that the safest way up isn't the fastest, run with a group, fight stuff and try to stay close or in those purified areas. As soon as that toxin duelist or whatever shows up and hits you with a 4s knockdown followed by a 2-3s knockback/knockdown, a lot of us are already screwed.