Questions about Windswept Haven Guild Hall

Our guild is considering switching Guild Halls from Lost Precipice to Windswept Haven. Before tallying votes, there are some details and feedback we're trying to track down first:

Nodes:

• Where are the nodes located in Windswept Haven?
• Are they grouped together?
• Is there a waypoint close by?

Race track:

• Is it viable for actual guild race events?

Size:

• The map appears to be roughly 1/4 the size of Lost Precipice. For those that have moved over, how does it seem compared to your prior GH(s)? (subjective, but would like feedback from those that have tried it)

Feel free to add any other pro vs. con details related to Windswept Haven vs. Lost Precipice that we may be overlooking.

We moved from LP to WH claiming it with 5 people. I immediately saw a nice little guild race route (with or without mount options ^.^), but outside of that I will say that with further exploration unlocked this hall looks very unfinished....if you have deco/rpers in guild they are in for serious disappointment as there are not structures for housing like you've had in LP (we have a LOT of deco in storage and NOWHERE to put it). Nodes are still conveniently clumped by the scribing station and there are multiple waypoints in the hall, not that it's big enough to need more than 1 or 2....tldr: After seeing Kormir's Library and/or Seborhin this hall is a complete and utter disappointment...

if dev's read this review...please...i know you want us running around maps doing things, but we like our downtime and guild hall events....this hall is so unfinished we are considering moving back to LP despite the fact of it being on the opposite side Tyria from the current content.

@Jockstrap.3179 said:We moved from LP to WH claiming it with 5 people. I immediately saw a nice little guild race route (with or without mount options ^.^), but outside of that I will say that with further exploration unlocked this hall looks very unfinished....if you have deco/rpers in guild they are in for serious disappointment as there are not structures for housing like you've had in LP (we have a LOT of deco in storage and NOWHERE to put it). Nodes are still conveniently clumped by the scribing station and there are multiple waypoints in the hall, not that it's big enough to need more than 1 or 2....tldr: After seeing Kormir's Library and/or Seborhin this hall is a complete and utter disappointment...

if dev's read this review...please...i know you want us running around maps doing things, but we like our downtime and guild hall events....this hall is so unfinished we are considering moving back to LP despite the fact of it being on the opposite side Tyria from the current content.

i totally agree, it s total disappointment for me. at first look, it s very nice. but after a while you loose ur life to the place. you'd want to put a personal touch in your home (guild hall). i m considering moving back to LP as well, cant place my decorations anywhere. it doesn't feel like it s our place anymore..it s been decorated by the devs.

The zone is definitely smaller and by extension everything is closer together. As others noted, it's architecturally pretty; however it makes decorating the guild hall a bit difficult and some items will look out of place with the Persian architect. There's also not a whole lot of room for jumping puzzles compared to the other guild halls. It's a very open-spaced guild hall with the main structure in the middle.

I'm not sure about races, but LP would most certainly be better for gliding as well as griffon races. There's no airlifts in WH, so you won't be able to do gliding in there. You might be able to make a circuit or two out of WH, though it won't really be as architecturally interesting as you could get with LP and swooping through rooms and such. I would recommend WH for no-frills guilds that just want a functional guild hall out of the bag.

Thanks for all of the feedback so far. I hadn't originally considered the decorating aspect, but this issue has since been raised in our own forums as well. We have a few keen decorators in our guild and besides beautifying the hall, they've also constructed some elaborate JPs. If WH is so much smaller, it seems like they'll have difficulty placing many of our decorations or making many JPs.

they did A good job, really , it s nice oasis, so alive, so colorful....but they went too far decorating it...they build in all possible decorations in the place, we cant customize it anymore....what's the use of scribing new decorations if no where to place them. i m disappointed, i wanted to put my touch in my hall, but no empty room or flat platforms where you can decorate. also, it is not fair for the other halls as they are super empty needing tons of decorations to look alive while this one is full of chairs, tables, cushions , urns, teapots, kegs ..... i really hope they rethink it ...

I was bewildered when I went to do my farming yesterday and wound up in WH. I have been pretty busy the past 2 days but had not even heard a poll question about getting the new hall. Fortunately the nodes transferred so not a huge loss (except now I need to remap it) but still, I liked having our hall up where it was.

@Jockstrap.3179 said:if dev's read this review...please...i know you want us running around maps doing things, but we like our downtime and guild hall events....this hall is so unfinished we are considering moving back to LP despite the fact of it being on the opposite side Tyria from the current content.

Not just the opposite side of the world but look at the relative locations in their expansions. In HOT the halls were in the middle of everything. Now we are almost at the very end of the new maps, and not connected to a nice one for a squishy character to run back to the 1st map either.

@Kalendraf.9521 said:Thanks for all of the feedback so far. I hadn't originally considered the decorating aspect, but this issue has since been raised in our own forums as well. We have a few keen decorators in our guild and besides beautifying the hall, they've also constructed some elaborate JPs. If WH is so much smaller, it seems like they'll have difficulty placing many of our decorations or making many JPs.

We switched from Gilded Hollow to this. Suffice to say I'm incredibly disappointed. After the genius of Gilded Hollow and it's clever behind-the-scenes jumping puzzle, I'm completely crestfallen that the Windswept Haven consists primarily of the things I hate about maps - floating islands and invisible barriers. It took two years to make! In my mind too much time was spent looking at images of Arabian architecture and not enough was spent actually making something that people want to explore and play in.

It's as though the developers don't understand what makes a game fun. I suspect that when you're coming into work and just doing a thing over and over you lose touch with the actual "play" aspect of the product.

Windswept Haven a tragedy. I'm glad I didn't buy the expac.

We switched from Gilded Hollow to Windswept last night.I love the architecture, it is visually stunning, the lighting is perfect and I like the fact it is smaller than the Hollow.

What will be relevant no matter which hall you swapped from to this one, what I don't like, is how the Marketplace is closer to the zone in Waypoint, and the Tavern which is useful for buffs is the furthest away. These two place should be swapped around in my opinion.It also came to my attention that getting to the Scribe station and nodes is also 'a long way around'. There should be a staircase directly from the Guild teleport/War Room upto the Workshop.

Also, there's no unique weapons to craft for this Guild Hall.

Here's some pics of what I'm saying about placements.https://imgur.com/a/PKSFw

We unlocked and claimed WH as a fully upgraded Guild Hall today, and must say here that I agree with others who have pointed out how much this Guild Hall lacks complexity, especially the complexity of Lost Precipice. I am wondering if there is a way to revert to our old hall without having to re-buy and claim it all over again?

The new GH is def aimed more to the low/medium sized guilds with the 2 HOT GH designed more for large guilds imho

We claimed Windswept Haven after having a very nicely decorated Lost Precipice and I have to agree with the other posts that have said that you can't really decorate it. There are no hidden rooms, or flat spots to build and decorate.

I will probably return back to Lost Precipice in a few weeks. WH is pretty and everything but there just doesn't seem to be any way to personalize it. The rooms are already beautifully decorated.

Also in the gathering nodes are just a little bit further than a Mesmer portal is able to work from the main waypoint. They are a bit closer than the nodes were in Lost Precipice but not as close as Guilded Hollow.

@Menadena.7482 said:

@Jockstrap.3179 said:if dev's read this review...please...i know you want us running around maps doing things, but we like our downtime and guild hall events....this hall is so unfinished we are considering moving back to LP despite the fact of it being on the opposite side Tyria from the current content.

@Jockstrap.3179 said:if dev's read this review...please...i know you want us running around maps doing things, but we like our downtime and guild hall events....this hall is so unfinished we are considering moving back to LP despite the fact of it being on the opposite side Tyria from the current content.

If you haven't realized it yet, as soon as you walk out of the hall into a new map, it gives you the initial waypoint for Domain of Vabbi, and as soon as you walk into The Desolation it gives you the first waypoint for that map, and so on. It's fairly simple to take the squishes or skip story if you've already done it, or have no interest (which would be a huge mistake imho.) It's one of the best laid out stories I've experienced in the game so far.

@HardRider.2980 said:The new GH is def aimed more to the low/medium sized guilds with the 2 HOT GH designed more for large guilds imho

Nah, the HOT gh is way too big for any guilds. There is a deco limit and no one can ever hope to decorate the entire hall with that limit. It is only logical to scale it down.

However, I am still disappointed that there is no further update for guilds other than a hall.

How do you change from WH back to GH?

@PlaidPancake.2814 said:How do you change from WH back to GH?

I imagine, just like changing between Gilded Hollow and Lost Precipice, you need to 'claim' Gilded Hollow, once again. (100 Gold and complete the 'quest'.)

My biggest problem, honestly, is that there is no unique weapon skins for the guild hall. We went out of our way relatively recently to make crafting guild weapons possible, but now if we swap we won't be able to reap the benefits of the teamwork it took to gather all the mats we needed to upgrade.

The thing I find most disappointing that we basically go from one set of ruins to another set of ruins.

My beef is that if they weren't going to put much effort into allowing WH to be as customizable as GH or LP in the first place (and that they've seemed to abandon guild content altogether), why put WH in the game at all?

@Kalendraf.9521 said:Our guild is considering switching Guild Halls from Lost Precipice to Windswept Haven. Before tallying votes, there are some details and feedback we're trying to track down first:

Nodes:

• Where are the nodes located in Windswept Haven?
• Are they grouped together?
• Is there a waypoint close by?

Race track:

• Is it viable for actual guild race events?

Size:

• The map appears to be roughly 1/4 the size of Lost Precipice. For those that have moved over, how does it seem compared to your prior GH(s)? (subjective, but would like feedback from those that have tried it)

Feel free to add any other pro vs. con details related to Windswept Haven vs. Lost Precipice that we may be overlooking.

I hope this image gives you perspective - you spawn where the red dots are, and where I'm standing is where they are located.

Note that you can not go 'as the crow flies' to the nodes. There is at least one wall in the way depending on the path you take. They also seem a bit further away than GH.