Istan Zone completion severely hindered

The Warden's Quarters PoI in the Domain of Istan is only available during the final stage of the Mordant Crescent Guild Hall meta event. While that worked during the time that Istan was the fresh current content, now it is getting increasingly difficult to find squads working on that meta. In part this is due to new content with the Sandswept Isles, and in part from the significant nerf (not arguing for or against here) that was brought against this map's meta event rewards which reduced the long term appeal for this map. The result is that players now have a much more difficult time getting this PoI.

Yes, I check LFG for groups and I have even occasionally found them, but often I am catching things as squads are waiting for the Palawadan Meta, and even so the number of squads is still much reduced these days.

I am asking that the developers simply leave a side door open so players can make a suicide run in, or else make this PoI obtainable from the roof as well as inside. Thank you!

The map is still heavily farmed, I don't see any issue with that. You can even get the meta event to progress that far with 10 people and those should be on every map, always.

We are having 2 very different experiences then in Istan. I would consider how it was 2 months ago "heavily farmed". Now when I can go through most of the weeknights looking for squads in LFG and not finding any during peak play time, I would not define that is "heavily farmed" unless you are talking about some other aspect of farming. My point is that it is on the decline and will only continue to decline, not grow and unlikely to even continue holding where it is at. Zone Map completion should not be gated behind meta events. ANet has already shown themselves to agree when they moved the HP in Auric Basin from behind the Meta locked doors into the open chamber.

I can find a group doing Istan farm, which includes great hall almost every single time I get on. It’s one of, if not the best farm, and is pretty easy to find a group doing it in my experience.

@Moira Shalaar.5620 said:The Warden's Quarters PoI in the Domain of Istan is only available during the final stage of the Mordant Crescent Guild Hall meta event.

You also go there during the story.

Istan is unlikely to dwindle to any problematic point. Silverwastes is still constantly done 4 years on and that is equally lucrative. LS3 are still decently populated and Istan is newer and more rewarding than those.

I agree poi's shouldn't be locked behind metas, but this one isn't really going to have any issues for players to get

I vaguely remember unlocking it by running up to the door.

I guess Auric Basin completion is "severely hindered" as well by the fact that the Overseer's Cave point of interest is locked during certain parts of the meta. And let's not forget the center of the labyrinth in the Silverwastes, which is only accessible for 15 minutes after a successful Vinewrath event.

As was said above, you get that point more or less automatically while playing the story of the associated living world episode. I don't think I've done the meta event even once (I just don't enjoy meta events), but have full Istan map completion on several characters, all of whom picked up the poi while playing through the story.

So, ANet sometimes resorts to placing exploration objectives in areas where you have to do more than just run (ride, now) to them to acquire. They've been doing things to create incentives for people to do content they might otherwise not engage in for a long time, even before GW2 launched. As much as I support the OP's right to complain, and as much as I would prefer that exploration be totally soloable as it was in the vast majority of GW and core GW2, there is nothing new here, nor are things likely to change.

It's quite annoying alright, I don't understand why they feel the need to block map completion by meta events. It's just a matter of expanding the PoI discovery zone to include the doors. It was irritating in HoT and it's irritating here. You would have thought that they had learned that as PoF doesn't do this but there seems to be little standardisation of processes or knowledge sharing between the teams.

What I did here and in the Sandswept Isles was park all my characters outside the doors and logged onto as many of the as possible during the meta, running in to unlock the PoI on each rather than participating in the meta. I missed out on a meta or two while doing that (there were more than enough players there too, so it's not like it affected anyone else) but at least it means that all my characters are ready to complete map exploration when I want to, regardless of whether that's today or a year from now.

My guess is that devs create maps and place exploration points first and only then add events and not really check if anything is blocked.

What others above said ^. Plus I dont see how Istan GH got a nerf? If anything its almost a buff, since theres 4-6 champs spawning every 25% of Amala, making it ~24 champs per fight. I havent gotten that many champs before Anet patched GH. For me its a buff.

@Nemezijus.6851 said:What others above said ^. Plus I dont see how Istan GH got a nerf? If anything its almost a buff, since theres 4-6 champs spawning every 25% of Amala, making it ~24 champs per fight. I havent gotten that many champs before Anet patched GH. For me its a buff.That was definitely a buff, yes, but there had been a previous nerf to how much volatile magic (and hence trophy shipments) you could get out of the event chains. Istan is still, as far as I know, the most lucrative open world farm in the game and is likely to stay that way for a while. That said, I do find it harder to get into a squad doing the Istan farm through LFG - they seem to be much less advertised than they used to.

Still, I get where the OP is coming from because I dislike having to rely on other people's contributions when doing map completion.

@"Nemezijus.6851" said:What others above said ^. Plus I dont see how Istan GH got a nerf? If anything its almost a buff, since theres 4-6 champs spawning every 25% of Amala, making it ~24 champs per fight. I havent gotten that many champs before Anet patched GH. For me its a buff.

Clearly my frustration is not shared by others, that is to be expected in any forum. With regards to the nerf to the Istan Guild Hall, previously you could cycle through multiple characters during the same event and collect from the chests whether or not those characters had participated in the event. This was kinda like the Auric Basin multi-map farm that happened for quite a while. Now, after the nerf only characters who participate in the event can open the chests, and only in the stages of the event they actively do. No multi character looting, and now there seems to be a hard limit on the number of chests that may be opened in a certain time period.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/294855#Comment_294855

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/19848/permanent-istan-chest-cap

@TheNecrosanct.4028 You are right, I forgot about the silverwastes. The one by the Vinewrath I mapped back when you could actually glide into that area regardless of meta to get the HP & PoI. I don't like how that is entirely blocked now either. And I was just as grumpy about the one in the Labyrinth when I was mapping that zone then. The one in Auric basic is an entirely different situation.

Thank you to the others who have posted suggestions on how to complete the map. I will take advantage of those alternatives, but I still assert that zone completion shouldn't be locked behind metas, whether here or silverwastes or wherever else.

@Moira Shalaar.5620 said:[...], but I still assert that zone completion shouldn't be locked behind metas, whether here or silverwastes or wherever else.

While I share your general sentiment, this is clearly a question of design philosophy and ANet choosing one you and I don't prefer. Meta-dependent map completion is present in quite a few places by now.SW: Vinewrath (and Labyrinth, iirc)AB: A couple PoI's locked by Southgate chain, one at the end of Northgate, though they did move the HP that was locked by Octovine.DS: prime example, with ~10 map objectives locked by the meta.

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:this is clearly a question of design philosophy and ANet choosing one you and I don't prefer.Yeah, they continue to add tricky map completion objectives. It seems that one of the LS teams is more prone to this design choice than the other(s).

Some nitpicking about the stated examples:

SW: Vinewrath (and Labyrinth, iirc)You can use a mount to get to the Vinewrath POI. No way to reach the labyrinth one that I've found.

AB: A couple PoI's locked by Southgate chain, one at the end of Northgate, though they did move the HP that was locked by Octovine.You can use a mount to avoid all the obstacles in AB (and even before that, clever gliding allowed you to get to them all). Although, I think it might be fair to argue that the Balthazar Hero Challenge can't realistically be soloed by the vast majority of players.

DS: prime example, with ~10 map objectives locked by the meta.Even before mounts, you could get to all but 3 objectives without the meta.

To make up for the knitting, some additional examples:

• Lake Doric: two POI cannot be easily reached without clever play or a zerg. (One is exceptionally difficult to reach without stealth or mounts or help.)
• Lake Doric & Ember Bay: many of the hearts are exceptionally tedious to complete, unless you participate in a nearby event chain. This isn't exactly the same as the OP's concern in Istan, but it almost certainly puts off more people. It's another example of ANet making a design choice that a big chunk of people find boring, rather than challenging.

@Ayrilana.1396 said:I vaguely remember unlocking it by running up to the door.

It has 2 points of interest in it. One you can get from the door, the other you have to get inside to where the warden is to unlock it.

It would be nice if the changed the great hall POI that requires participation in the meta. Make it so you can get it from the roof or something.

My solution remove meta event have it open all time

The PoI at the top of the centaur place in Lake Doric, due to the quantity and strength of centaurs (90% elite or harder) and the time it takes to run from bottom to top, can almost only be reached by a squad that leather farms*. Leather farm groups, since the introduction of Istan + glyph of leatherworking reducing the value of leather, have almost fell off the face of the earth and sometimes it's difficult to find one even at NA prime....but has this ever hindered my map completeion of lake doric? Nope.

*It CAN be reached solo, but it is EXCEPTIONALLY difficult, nearly impossible. I have genuinely no idea how people reach it solo, but i have seen map chat tales of the time and # of attempts some people have done...-shivers-

Every other meta / event dependent PoI/HP are done frequently (HoT metas are done all the time and the only map with PoI locked behind them is AB (done frequently - south pre pylon events are almost awlays completed soon after reset) and DS succeeds more often than not), SW meta has a squad up almost always though not always in lfg due to full). People still farm istan all the time, if you can't find a squad it's likely theres at least one full squad on one map or another.

The labyrinth in Silverwastes is in one of the living story episodes. You don't have to wait for the map to unlock it.

Also on the SW one, even if VW fails the vines will open afaik. You can solo progress the map to get to VW, it may be slow, but every event you complete pushes the bar and it's very unlikely you'll be absolutely the only one in the map doing any events. Sure it's not as easy as just running to a place whenever you feel like it, but you don't need an organized map. As to the VW poi, I've been able to get to it after the supposed nerf, there's just a narrower gap to glide/griffon through.

Lake Doric centaur poi? I admit I've mostly used stealth and/or blocking skills, but even without mounts it's not impossible. You go up to the peach tree and hop across to the grassy upper area, then work up some rocks (possibly getting pinged by one or two centaur snipers, if you're made of glass it could be an issue) and glide over to the final approach to the poi area. You then only have a short gauntlet to run (stealth, blocks, reflects all helpful) to get the poi, at which point dying is no biggie so you don't need an exit strategy.

For the Istan one in the OP, are you sure you have to get inside? I vaguely recall getting it by gliding onto the roof from afar. I'm not 100% on that, though, as the meta was still going strong back when I was exploring.

To be honest the only POIs I've ever really had trouble with (especially after flight) is the one in the cave in Auric Basin and lucking into a Dragon's Stand zerg or immediately thereafter.

Pretty much all of the ones in the Crystal Desert are easy to get to. Especially with a griffon now, you can even get the hard-to-reach ones by bypassing most of the mobs...

@Ubi.4136 said:

@Ayrilana.1396 said:I vaguely remember unlocking it by running up to the door.

Yeah. I just tried it and the only one I couldn't get is the one that was inside.

The one thing that I don't get about the complaints though is that doing map completion doesn't really gain you anything.