Draconis Mons is amazing

I didn't play during Living World Season 3 so I missed out on seeing these maps during peak activity. Going back recently to this map particularly is just amazing. This map genuinely blew my mind much like Tangled Depths did. It's such an interesting map and I was just so floored by the sheer size and verticality. What do other people think of this map? Was it well received at the time?

It was well received. One of my favorite zones in the game. So many short cuts and secret ways. And the oakheart essence mastery is awesomely fun.

I love it too. It is confusing at first, but I think it's worse if you're used to relying on the mini map to navigate, whereas I find map reading confusing at the best of times so I mainly navigate by wandering around and then remembering how I got from A to B. With this map it also helps to remember it's basically an anti-clockwise spiral so you generally keep going up and left to move 'across' the map.

I do remember it took me absolutely ages to get anywhere in this map, but because I kept being distracted which for me is a very good thing (I had the same in Tangled Depths, and all the HoT maps actually). Believe it or not the first thing I did when I loaded in was turn around and run into the sea - because it looked weird and I wanted to see what would happen. Of course I died so the second thing I did was try to find ways into/across the water without dying..with mixed results. Then I went all up that ledge on the left side of the main path from the beach, which ends in a dead end but has lots of stuff along the way. There's various caves coming off the outer edge of the spiral too which have all kinds of things hidden in them.

Oh, there's an amazing jumping puzzle too. It's huge and involves gliding and using the vine pull skill a lot which means where to go is often not at all obvious (although if you look carefully there are hints) and it will probably take ages to get through, but I thought it was fun. Definitely one of the more imaginative puzzles.

Whilst doing collections, I really liked Draconis Mons myself - really nice map.

@Danikat.8537 said:I love it too. It is confusing at first, but I think it's worse if you're used to relying on the mini map to navigate, whereas I find map reading confusing at the best of times so I mainly navigate by wandering around and then remembering how I got from A to B. With this map it also helps to remember it's basically an anti-clockwise spiral so you generally keep going up and left to move 'across' the map.

I do remember it took me absolutely ages to get anywhere in this map, but because I kept being distracted which for me is a very good thing (I had the same in Tangled Depths, and all the HoT maps actually). Believe it or not the first thing I did when I loaded in was turn around and run into the sea - because it looked weird and I wanted to see what would happen. Of course I died so the second thing I did was try to find ways into/across the water without dying..with mixed results. Then I went all up that ledge on the left side of the main path from the beach, which ends in a dead end but has lots of stuff along the way. There's various caves coming off the outer edge of the spiral too which have all kinds of things hidden in them.

Oh, there's an amazing jumping puzzle too. It's huge and involves gliding and using the vine pull skill a lot which means where to go is often not at all obvious (although if you look carefully there are hints) and it will probably take ages to get through, but I thought it was fun. Definitely one of the more imaginative puzzles.

Good post! Thanks for sharing, it highlights what I liked about the map too. It's so detailed and varied. I couldn't help but gush a little when I went there, it gave me that special kind of feeling. I like when ANet is bold and makes exploration really thick and natural like they did for HoT. The game is at it's best when the nooks and crannies feel organic. I know some players get overwhelmed but personally, the game is at it's best with maps like this.

To me, it has even more awesome multi-layer verticality of TD without the hair-pulling frustration of TD's mazes. (Yes, I detest TD with all my heart! No other map makes me straight up angry like TD does.)

As someone who is 3 days from making Aurora, I can say that I will absolutely never be going back to this zone when I'm done.

Being forced to repeat the same heart quests every day for 16 days... because a backpiece I never wanted is a collection requirement.

It's an amazing map stylistically, but I never liked playing there.

@Klipso.8653 said:As someone who is 3 days from making Aurora, I can say that I will absolutely never be going back to this zone when I'm done.

Being forced to repeat the same heart quests every day for 16 days... because a backpiece I never wanted is a collection requirement.

I did the Aurora collection myself; the best part was that the 16 days collection was on this map and not another one, I seriously dislike the idea of it being on another LW map.

That was one of my favorite Season 3 maps.

I think it's a great map, and the oakheart mastery is insanely fun (it's a shame we never got more maps using that mastery mechanic, would have been amazing if they'd added it into other maps).

Amazing map. Although I still prefer the HoT ones, it is one of the great examples of crazy original ideas for map design that somehow were lost with PoF.

Making Aurora collection finally got me to know the map, from top to bottom. Till that day i thought the map has 8 layers and would argue with anyone that say otherwise :) . I still go there despite the fact I had to do hearts for 15 days strait. I guess Griffon made it bit more fun for me.

But my fav is Ember out of LW3.

whilst it was a bit all over the place, the maps in ls3 were certainly varied and original. Draconis remains one of the best in the game

@Klipso.8653 said:As someone who is 3 days from making Aurora, I can say that I will absolutely never be going back to this zone when I'm done.

Being forced to repeat the same heart quests every day for 16 days... because a backpiece I never wanted is a collection requirement.

Could be worse.

@Ayrilana.1396 said:

@Klipso.8653 said:As someone who is 3 days from making Aurora, I can say that I will absolutely never be going back to this zone when I'm done.

Being forced to repeat the same heart quests every day for 16 days... because a backpiece I never wanted is a collection requirement.

A timegate IS pretty bad, it does nothing for a game except artificially extend gamelife. And they seem to keep using it in more and more areas of the game. Raids, WvW, even crafting.

Design wise one of my favorite maps, too bad the replayability sucks so hard as there is no reason to return to this map other than sightseeing.

Some people say it's structurally similar to Tangled Depths which makes no sence (at all).

Still visit it, was an awesome map and the combination of oakheart movement ability and the gliding was inspired. Had hoped that mechanic might be able to reach outside of that map and was sad to see it didn't. I do feel for those being forced to repeat it for Aurora but, without that forced encounter its a nice map. In fact most of the LS3 maps were all quite well done and fun to repeat with the added benefit of useful zone currencies if you are an alt-a-holic that needs ascended trinkets.

One of my favorite maps when it came out. I have a huge problem with maps that have different layers though, so it was extremely painful for me to navigate for the longest time. It can still be incredibly confusing to me at times, but I still consider it one of the better releases. It just feels right and if I'm not mistaken that same team has also made the Jahai Bluffs? Which really shows.

(I still take the wrong waypoint sometimes if I want to go somewhere... :D )

Not my fave map. In fact i still farm season 3 maps and I pretty much pulled teeth in DM doing the hearts to make the backpack , but never go there to do dailies. Ever. I farm the instance node and that's my lot.

It's a pretty map, but there are so many pretty maps now. That's one thing I love about this game. :)

Draconis was great and I was one of the first to complete its back piece collection (barring the server crashing bug of planting seeds disabling progress for a week). Was hoping its mastery would be usable in future content, but oh well.

Don't hate the map because of the back piece collection though. You're going to have to do the same for LW4's trinket, too.