Bounties...

This system needs some work. Sure, it's great when you happen to be online during peak hours in the correct map with the stars and planets aligned so that more than 5 people join your squad to kill these champs... But most of the time I find myself looking at a collection list and having to go track down specific bounties by myself. I have to put up my commander tag (which cost me hundreds of gold) and wait for sometimes hours to get anyone to help me. Does anyone remember the manifesto? Yes, I'm invoking the manifesto in the current year.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2_Design_Manifesto

"...it doesn't make you spend hours preparing to have fun..."

I was following this game since it was just a twinkle in MO's eye. I remember when the devs talked about eliminating "waiting to have fun" from the game. Waiting for hours to get a few people to kill Snap Spinecrack on a Sunday is the opposite of this philosophy. Literally no one wants to do the bounties in Vabbi when I go there. They are all quietly waiting for other events to happen on a timer, and can't be bothered to join for bounties. This problem is only going to get worse over time as players move on to new content with their collections already finished.

My suggestion is make bounties soloable. These are not normal champs. I can solo a normal champ. These champs have special meme mechanics designed to turn the game into a whacky bullet hell game and provide a challenge for massive zergs. Zergs which don't exist anymore because PoF is getting old. Make it so that the special mechanics only activate when there are more than 4 players attacking.

I have experienced that ppl would rather join a full run for a map than a single "normal" bounty. This might look different for legendary ones but for normal champion bounties you will probably wait longer to get some ppl than the time you need for doing one board.

Then... it very much depends on the lfg. I, for example, wouldn't join an lfg that only says "bounties" because i don't know how many they have already done. Not worth to join if they only have like.. 2 left.

I never had any issues getting enough ppl - starting with like 20 and getting more and more - when i tagged, but my lfg was something like: "bounties, start at xx: 45" (for example) while giving ppl enough time to gather - about 15 min. Also i changed the lfg as soon as we changed the board, so newcomer can see how far we already got.

Better loot for bounties, okay.. but the rest is rather a matter of organization IMHO.

My suggestion is make bounties soloable.

I can assure you they are already soloable. The only barrier is your personal skill.

@"Xenon.4537" said:This system needs some work. Sure, it's great when you happen to be online during peak hours in the correct map with the stars and planets aligned so that more than 5 people join your squad to kill these champs... But most of the time I find myself looking at a collection list and having to go track down specific bounties by myself. I have to put up my commander tag (which cost me hundreds of gold) and wait for sometimes hours to get anyone to help me. Does anyone remember the manifesto? Yes, I'm invoking the manifesto in the current year.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2_Design_Manifesto

"...it doesn't make you spend hours preparing to have fun..."

I was following this game since it was just a twinkle in MO's eye. I remember when the devs talked about eliminating "waiting to have fun" from the game. Waiting for hours to get a few people to kill Snap Spinecrack on a Sunday is the opposite of this philosophy. Literally no one wants to do the bounties in Vabbi when I go there. They are all quietly waiting for other events to happen on a timer, and can't be bothered to join for bounties. This problem is only going to get worse over time as players move on to new content with their collections already finished.

My suggestion is make bounties soloable. These are not normal champs. I can solo a normal champ. These champs have special meme mechanics designed to turn the game into a whacky bullet hell game and provide a challenge for massive zergs. Zergs which don't exist anymore because PoF is getting old. Make it so that the special mechanics only activate when there are more than 4 players attacking.

They are solo-able. I've personally done about 75% of the currently available bounties solo, including the legendaries. I'd rather they remain as they are, although I wouldn't mind if some aspects of bounty challenges saw some re-tuning.

Specifically, the Restorer buff seems ridiculously overpowered compared to any other unstable magic buffs. I can work with any of the other buffs, but I have never once managed to solo any boss that had this buff. There are some bosses that seem way overtuned as well. Ignus (Holy cow! What were they thinking with this guy!?), Diwaana, Muckstalker, and most of the Djinns, to name a few that seem way above the level of the others.

@segman.3560 said:

My suggestion is make bounties soloable.

Some of them, maybe. But their HP are pretty tough and if they have stupid abilities you might as well forget about it

@Blocki.4931 said:

@segman.3560 said:

My suggestion is make bounties soloable.

Exactly. Most are not soloable and certainly not by 99% of the community.

I'm not entirely sure how they would implement it but I'd love to be able to see the Bounty's abilities before spawning it. Sometimes a bad combination of modifiers can turn a bounty you plan (or attempt) to solo into one where you need to ask for help, and unfortunately if you've already spawned it you'll often lose 3 or 4 minutes before players start to arrive, if any decide to come in the first place. Perhaps show it on the bounty listing on your 'quest log' when you accept it, similar to the way Fractal Instabilities are now displayed.

@Blocki.4931 said:

@segman.3560 said:

My suggestion is make bounties soloable.

I forgot about bounties 2 weeks after PoF. Ha!

they are easily soloable on classes like rev, mesmer and thief because of all your evasion abilities that negate the boss dmg by 100%. And even then the player needs at least some skill to pull that off.

though it would be nice if those bounty events would scale down like in core tyria again. The rewards are not that great, so noone would farm then solo. Especially for new players this is a problem because they are often not that good, don't have bis gear and have to play the barren wasteland (literally) maps completely alone (because they are almost always entirely deserted).Having to do collections that involve bounties (e.g. for elite spec weapons) where you have to wait ages for a single event that rewards you with 15 silver worth of loot will drive new players away from this game. (if there are any new players in this game at all because with the enormous content drought going on it feels more like the game is dying)

I dont really see any issue with having them scale down(starting) as veterans and scaling up to Champions. Im not looking forward to doing the remaining Elite spec collections because of the bounties they need. Everything else is cake...waiting on groups that probably wont form is bleh.

@Ferus.3165 said:they are easily soloable on classes like rev, mesmer and thief because of all your evasion abilities that negate the boss dmg by 100%. And even then the player needs at least some skill to pull that off.

though it would be nice if those bounty events would scale down like in core tyria again. The rewards are not that great, so noone would farm then solo. Especially for new players this is a problem because they are often not that good, don't have bis gear and have to play the barren wasteland (literally) maps completely alone (because they are almost always entirely deserted).Having to do collections that involve bounties (e.g. for elite spec weapons) where you have to wait ages for a single event that rewards you with 15 silver worth of loot will drive new players away from this game. (if there are any new players in this game at all because with the enormous content drought going on it feels more like the game is dying)

What enormous content drought? In 12 mnths we have had an expansion, 3 living world episodes with a 4th due and a full new(ish) festival. That isnt a drought let alone an enormous one

@Randulf.7614 said:

@Ferus.3165 said:they are easily soloable on classes like rev, mesmer and thief because of all your evasion abilities that negate the boss dmg by 100%. And even then the player needs at least some skill to pull that off.

though it would be nice if those bounty events would scale down like in core tyria again. The rewards are not that great, so noone would farm then solo. Especially for new players this is a problem because they are often not that good, don't have bis gear and have to play the barren wasteland (literally) maps completely alone (because they are almost always entirely deserted).Having to do collections that involve bounties (e.g. for elite spec weapons) where you have to wait ages for a single event that rewards you with 15 silver worth of loot will drive new players away from this game. (if there are any new players in this game at all because with the enormous content drought going on it feels more like the game is dying)

If some people arent getting content releases every 2 days its a drought, but thats..incredibly off topic.

@"Xenon.4537" said:"...it doesn't make you spend hours preparing to have fun..."

I dunno, i don't spend hours preparing to have fun. I've usually gotten good response to asking for help doing bounties or following a bounty train. And if I wait more than a few minutes, then I go do something else and come back.

Sure, the difficulty:reward ratio could be adjusted (or reduced for Istan/SW, so other activities are more comparable). But I can't agree that there's some fundamental violation of the guidelines laid out in the manifesto.

@Randulf.7614 said:

@Ferus.3165 said:they are easily soloable on classes like rev, mesmer and thief because of all your evasion abilities that negate the boss dmg by 100%. And even then the player needs at least some skill to pull that off.

though it would be nice if those bounty events would scale down like in core tyria again. The rewards are not that great, so noone would farm then solo. Especially for new players this is a problem because they are often not that good, don't have bis gear and have to play the barren wasteland (literally) maps completely alone (because they are almost always entirely deserted).Having to do collections that involve bounties (e.g. for elite spec weapons) where you have to wait ages for a single event that rewards you with 15 silver worth of loot will drive new players away from this game. (if there are any new players in this game at all because with the enormous content drought going on it feels more like the game is dying)

not what this threat is about but well: we've got 2 tiny maps (ls story) this year and one 15 minute fractal and we've had only 2 raid bosses in the last 18 months. There has not even been an announcement when the next content update is going to be (following their 2-3 months schedule ls ep 4 should have been released since several weeks). Ls episodes are throw away content, just like pof in general. You do it once and then there is no reason to go back there ever again. Hot maps are still swarming with players while pof maps are literally deserted. We've had no new maps or content in wvw/pvp since years aswell. Even Hot gave us several new pvp maps and a new mode and a new wvw map. Mass guilds i am in had well over 100 active members almost every time i logged in, now it is down to 20-30 active players, same with my raid guilds. Those that are still left log in once or maybe twice per week for raids and that is it.Anet supposedly has a crew of over 400 people and yet games like bdo (with less than 100 employees) manage to increase the map size by the magnitude of the whole gw2 base game alone this year, next to a new class and other things.

@Xenon.4537 said:have to put up my commander tag (which cost me hundreds of gold) and wait for sometimes hours to get anyone to help me.r/thingsthatneverhappened

I've never had to wait longer than 10 mins after throwing up a tag to get the 4-5 people needed to comfortably complete a bounty. Most times I don't even have to do a call out in map chat. Just put up my tag as I am fighting the champ and people show up.

This kind of hyperbole does not serve your point. It only weakens your already thin argument.

Bounties are group content. Making grossly exaggerated claims about how long it takes to assemble that group will not get the design change you are looking for.

The best way to deal with bounties is by creating a "train" and advertising on LFG. Instead of going for 1 specific bounty, gather up players that want different ones and finish them all in one run. That's how I did any of the achievements that required bounties, it was frustrating when the only bounty I needed was the last one we did, but at least it worked with minimal waiting time, and at the same I got some loot from the other bounties.

@mindcircus.1506 said:

@Xenon.4537 said:have to put up my commander tag (which cost me hundreds of gold) and wait for sometimes hours to get anyone to help me.r/thingsthatneverhappened

yet it is not a hyperbole. Simply because it did not happen to you does not mean it does not happen. It happened to me while i wanted to finish the collection for the holosmith sword (the only collection of those i did which i did not finish during the first few weeks after pof release) and i had to wait several hours (with map jumping and searching for other players and commanders etc.) but the map was entirely deserted. After 2.5 hours of waiting, i was about to quit when i got help from my guild and we did the needed bounty with 5 guild members. I never did another bounty after that. And i never intend to waste my time with that stupid system again.

@Ferus.3165 said:And i never intend to waste my time with that stupid system again.

And yet here you wasting time posting about it on the forums.More hyperbole I suppose?

@Ferus.3165 said:they are easily soloable on classes like rev, mesmer and thief because of all your evasion abilities that negate the boss dmg by 100%. And even then the player needs at least some skill to pull that off.

though it would be nice if those bounty events would scale down like in core tyria again. The rewards are not that great, so noone would farm then solo. Especially for new players this is a problem because they are often not that good, don't have bis gear and have to play the barren wasteland (literally) maps completely alone (because they are almost always entirely deserted).Having to do collections that involve bounties (e.g. for elite spec weapons) where you have to wait ages for a single event that rewards you with 15 silver worth of loot will drive new players away from this game. (if there are any new players in this game at all because with the enormous content drought going on it feels more like the game is dying)

Damage mitigation isn't as much the issue as is actually killing them solo before the timer runs out.

@Ferus.3165 said:

@Randulf.7614 said:

@Ferus.3165 said:they are easily soloable on classes like rev, mesmer and thief because of all your evasion abilities that negate the boss dmg by 100%. And even then the player needs at least some skill to pull that off.

though it would be nice if those bounty events would scale down like in core tyria again. The rewards are not that great, so noone would farm then solo. Especially for new players this is a problem because they are often not that good, don't have bis gear and have to play the barren wasteland (literally) maps completely alone (because they are almost always entirely deserted).Having to do collections that involve bounties (e.g. for elite spec weapons) where you have to wait ages for a single event that rewards you with 15 silver worth of loot will drive new players away from this game. (if there are any new players in this game at all because with the enormous content drought going on it feels more like the game is dying)

3 Maps, one which has the most commonly referred to farm meta, Several big balance patches (they ARE content, because they change the way the game plays), Agreed that raid releases are a few months slower than what they should be. Don't know about fractals.

I don't even disagree that PoF was entirely "one and done" content, nor that the LS maps are like that. Season 3 was the same way though. Only relevant because of trinkets and Aurora, something PoF can't really repeat.

As for WvW: We don't need new maps or content. What would they add? New mechanics? New siege? Rather rework the bland Alpine Borderlands to be less desolate and boring design wise. We all know the Alliances is coming to change how stupid server system works with all those people switching away, leaving servers for dead for far too long. Not saying they should never change anything, but come on. Nobody wants a new map. It would force people to learn something new and we all know how last time went.

The only bounty where I had to wait a lot, was the Chaotic Leyspark, but that's because no one plays Engineer in PvE. I started a group in LFG, but no one joined (well, 3-4 people just used me to change map and then leave without a word). When I finally saw a soul passing by, after literally 4 hours, I spawned the boss and we killed it in 2.Boring it was boring, but there are achievements that require weeks or months... I won't complain for some bounty required for a collection (as suggested, it's easier to start a group for all the bounties of a map, rather than a single one).Anyway, maybe not bounties, but there are other achievements that new players could find difficult to complete, if no one organises them, like the Junundu.

Have you used the LFG-Tool and/or map chat? I always tag up and just lfg or use map chat. I usually have about ~10 people within 5 minutes. Though this is usually during the bounty dailies.

@Blocki.4931 said:

@Ferus.3165 said:they are easily soloable on classes like rev, mesmer and thief because of all your evasion abilities that negate the boss dmg by 100%. And even then the player needs at least some skill to pull that off.

though it would be nice if those bounty events would scale down like in core tyria again. The rewards are not that great, so noone would farm then solo. Especially for new players this is a problem because they are often not that good, don't have bis gear and have to play the barren wasteland (literally) maps completely alone (because they are almost always entirely deserted).Having to do collections that involve bounties (e.g. for elite spec weapons) where you have to wait ages for a single event that rewards you with 15 silver worth of loot will drive new players away from this game. (if there are any new players in this game at all because with the enormous content drought going on it feels more like the game is dying)

@Ferus.3165 said:

@Randulf.7614 said:

@Ferus.3165 said:they are easily soloable on classes like rev, mesmer and thief because of all your evasion abilities that negate the boss dmg by 100%. And even then the player needs at least some skill to pull that off.

though it would be nice if those bounty events would scale down like in core tyria again. The rewards are not that great, so noone would farm then solo. Especially for new players this is a problem because they are often not that good, don't have bis gear and have to play the barren wasteland (literally) maps completely alone (because they are almost always entirely deserted).Having to do collections that involve bounties (e.g. for elite spec weapons) where you have to wait ages for a single event that rewards you with 15 silver worth of loot will drive new players away from this game. (if there are any new players in this game at all because with the enormous content drought going on it feels more like the game is dying)

keep telling that to yourself while the game population is steadily declining.... no raids, fractals is a joke (one super small map in this year), balance patch is content sure (switching numbers around sure is content XDD) and only 2 (small) ls maps this year oh and ofc "we" (i am sure you know that) don't want or even need anything in pvp/wvw....

@mindcircus.1506 said:

@Ferus.3165 said:And i never intend to waste my time with that stupid system again.

it takes 2-3 min to write answer and the same time to fly through the threads that sound interesting mr "i don't know what a hyperbole is". check out the dictionary for that xD.

Fortunately daily events / bounties make sure there are tons of people available for any and all bounties. Though those days the problem may be not getting your desired bounty to spawn up. :P

Snap Spinecrack should be one of the easier ones. I don't remember any notable skill on it.

@Glacial.9516 said:I'm not entirely sure how they would implement it but I'd love to be able to see the Bounty's abilities before spawning it. Sometimes a bad combination of modifiers can turn a bounty you plan (or attempt) to solo into one where you need to ask for help, and unfortunately if you've already spawned it you'll often lose 3 or 4 minutes before players start to arrive, if any decide to come in the first place. Perhaps show it on the bounty listing on your 'quest log' when you accept it, similar to the way Fractal Instabilities are now displayed.

Better fix would be blacklisting some of the crappier combinations on specific bounties.

@Skotlex.7580 said:Fortunately daily events / bounties make sure there are tons of people available for any and all bounties. Though those days the problem may be not getting your desired bounty to spawn up. :P

Normal bounties have relatively short respawns. When doing bounty trains when you have gone through each usually the earlier ones have already respawned. I usually skip any PoF event/bouty dailies. They are just not worth. Maybe it is just perception but PoF events feel like they typically drag on for longer. Also too many escort events.

All bounties are easy to get done in any of the maps when it has a daily. Just tag/mentor up and list the nearest WP.

If you’re trying to get all of them done then I suggest putting a LFG up during prime time.