Thank you for the Dragon's Stand meta

I know, the Dragon's Stand meta is old news and probably routine to a lot of people on the forums, but...to a newcomer...I just have to gush. :blush: So I headed into the Dragon's Stand map a few hours ago for the very first time, following the story. When I loaded into the map, I saw a ton of people standing around waiting for the meta to start...so, figuring I might not get another easy chance at this, joined a squad and got swept along for the ride. I had no idea what I was doing and tried very hard to pay attention to the commanders - and thanks to excellent leadership (good commanders are amazing), I finally figured it out. Everyone did their parts.

That. Was. AWESOME. We kicked the Mordrem Commanders' thorny behinds back to whatever plant-hell they crawled out of, annihilated the Blighting Towers, and all three lanes poured into Dragon's Domain.

Gliding into Dragon's Domain with that

playing...I was grinning so widely my face hurt (seriously, Maclaine Diemer, you are a genius composer). And when the Mouth of Mordremoth showed itself, I whispered holy crap...and I could not keep a smile off my face during the entire event. My computer slowed to a crawl (even with all settings on low), I wasn't entirely sure what to do some of the time, and my eyes hurt a little from all the neon ley-lines, but IT WAS SO WORTH IT.

We killed the Mouth of Mordremoth in record time, and I was cheering all throughout the ending cutscene.

Thank you for creating something that epic, ArenaNet. :grin: Best. Meta. EVER!!

It's indeed a good meta, with an epic BGM (such as the one played in Tarir). I remember my first time, when the Mouth climbed up to the hill during the cutscene: "oh my, is it still alive? what's now?". But it finally died :smiley:The AoE when the Mouth kills all the players around are also cool (although you'll learn how to avoid them, later on).Remember: "Keep the moster stunned!" (Laranthir's tip)

dude.. i play it like a daily and i don’t think i’ll ever get tired of it

i love the rewards too, and helps when i’m after commander gear and leadership runes

my clan Eva does it in 35 mins so if you’re on Na server and the west coast, do join us!I recently started to learn on commanding a squad.. possibly a substitute commander

I'm glad you like it. :) It's not the most profitable meta but it's definitely my favorite one anyway. There are 3 lanes with different events so it takes a while to get bored of and cooperation is really important. I love the way people work together on this map (even when we wipe at the Blighting Towers and it starts a drama, lol).

Gerent remains my favourite, but yeah Dragon Stand is pretty epic and does a great job of capturing the story of a push against an Elder Dragon in its lair.

Yeah I remembered my first time doing that meta. It made me fall in love with guild wars. Bummer though, we don't have such a meta in PoF with a big ass boss like that. Honestly, one big world boss meta should be a staple in every expansion in gw2.

@"Batel.9206" said:I know, the Dragon's Stand meta is old news and probably routine to a lot of people on the forums, but...to a newcomer...I just have to gush. :blush: So I headed into the Dragon's Stand map a few hours ago for the very first time, following the story. When I loaded into the map, I saw a ton of people standing around waiting for the meta to start...so, figuring I might not get another easy chance at this, joined a squad and got swept along for the ride. I had no idea what I was doing and tried very hard to pay attention to the commanders - and thanks to excellent leadership (good commanders are amazing), I finally figured it out. Everyone did their parts.

That. Was. AWESOME. We kicked the Mordrem Commanders' thorny behinds back to whatever plant-hell they crawled out of, annihilated the Blighting Towers, and all three lanes poured into Dragon's Domain.

Gliding into Dragon's Domain with that

playing...I was grinning so widely my face hurt (seriously, Maclaine Diemer, you are a genius composer). And when the Mouth of Mordremoth showed itself, I whispered holy kitten...and I could not keep a smile off my face during the entire event. My computer slowed to a crawl (even with all settings on low), I wasn't entirely sure what to do some of the time, and my eyes hurt a little from all the neon ley-lines, but IT WAS SO WORTH IT.

We killed the Mouth of Mordremoth in record time, and I was cheering all throughout the ending cutscene.

Thank you for creating something that epic, ArenaNet. :grin: Best. Meta. EVER!!

I really enjoyed reading yout post. I found myself smiling the whole way through. I miss the days when the game felt that way to me. Enjoy it!?

Yeah it's cool, remember when I did it the first time 3 years ago. But after a while and farming a bit it gets a bit tedious. So I don't do it too often, especially since the farming of pods after the meta is rather annoying. But yeah, cool thing. And I am happy to hear that people actually listen to the in game music. Much much underappreciated in this genre and on PC gaming generally.

With mounts and HoT masteries, I love all HoT maps. They’re all so amazing in their design. Even in WoW with its crappy open world pve, I always preferred open world contents. GW2’s open world is just so amazing. I love it.

I’ve always loved music in GW games as well. Personal story is rather poorly done, with poorly scripted events. It’s kind of hilarious having such amazing and epic music in a really unepic and poorly scripted personal story event.

Have you seen the Edge of the Mists map from the WvW tab? If you have, you should read the post I made a few days ago. A fight like the one I describe below is something I’ve always wanted:https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/60990/i-want-an-epic-aerial-map-with-dragon-world-boss-fight/p1?new=1

And for the record, the fight I imagine is not like Dragon’s Stand (or Deathwing from WoW). I cleared up the post a bit, hoping people will better understand what I’m getting at.

On the topic of Dragon's Stand meta: Laranthir of the Wild, man. He's the real MVP. Are we gonna get any more of him in the future?

Nah dud metas are bad x] (jk) Although my favourite remains vb i must say the way anet coupled story with the meta and gave a genuenly badass clossure i think was very well done. They did story in an mmo really well with these metas imho.

Kinda sad they threw all that out the window with pof but meh, heres hoping for expac 3 to go bacj to the good stuff.

I agree, it's a really fun event chain. Which is good since I need about 1,500 crystalline ore for mini pets. I think they were going for a similar sort of thing with the meta events throughout Orr, but it works much better condensed into 1 map.

BTW if you want to do it again you can use the Wiki to check when it's due to start. Either the Dragon's Stand page or this one which lists all the different timers: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Event_timers

Then you can use the Looking For Group (LFG) tool in the game to find a map to do it on. For Dragon's Stand it's best to find a group before the meta resets so when the map closes and new ones open you're more likely to all be pulled into the same copy, but if not you can right-click anyone in the squad and pick 'Join in Dragon's Stand' to get into their version.

First time I ever loaded into the map was seconds before the map reset and Mordremoth murdered everyone, so that was quite epic. It's also probably my favorite map in the game for achievements because you get them by doing the events without having to wiki/dulfy different steps.

The best meta for sure. Did after long break 2 weeks ago, great fun.OTI did as well VB. And was shocked. I was on VB map check something. Map was after meta so I make a decision to do as much event as i can and do meta once again. Put on LFG info about events and try to do meta on T4. And what is the best we didi it. We did T4.

DS is my favourite meta, there hasn't been anything since (like in PoF and LWS4 etc.) that has matched up to it from what i've seen :)

I have to say it's my favorite as well, it's easier than Silverwastes and as chaotic as Tequatl.

OP here! :D After doing the meta a few more times, I still think this is the best thing ever. I have to run everything on the lowest possible settings (and even then, it still lags like insanity), I'm still a bit confused with all the players rushing to and fro...but HO-LY-CRUD if it isn't exhilarating. The fight with the Mouth of Mordremoth will never get old.

There was also one thrilling moment where everything had gone quiet. We just finished a massive battle, and now the jungle was silent. And then a Mordrem wyvern rocketed overhead, spewing flames and lighting the foliage on fire.BLADEMASTER DIARMAD APPROACHES

...as the towering form of Diarmad came slowly striding through the fire and smoke...

Ahem. So. All that to say, some months later I'm still fangirling over this event. :) I'm so glad that there are a lot of other people who enjoy this event as well! Love reading everyone's reactions to this meta. I'm curious - people who were around when HoT first released and you did the meta events (specifically this one) for the first time ever, what was that like? Were you awed? Excited? View it as routine but then later saw it as enjoyable (or vice versa)?

I love those HoT meta too, its just sad that PoF cant even come close to it as far as quality and fun.

I admit all the meta's in HoT are still quite replayable. Have said it before and will again, map building events with zone wide metas, that can fail, and have decent loot are a great combination. You get that feeling that MMOs should provide which is you accomplished something at the end of it. Quite happy that you enjoyed it OP and may you continue to do so.

Idk if it's the best on my list but I can definitely agree that the HoT metas are all lots of fun! :)

I enjoy Dragons Stand a lot as well. What's interesting is that it can be one of the most fun, and can also be one of the most frustrating. Fun in that when everyone coordinates and you succeed, you feel like a job well-done and the experience was rewarding. Frustrating (usually at the blighting towers) when coordination breaks down, the bosses and pods respawn, people quit, and it all falls apart.

@Tazdingo.7213 said:Yeah I remembered my first time doing that meta. It made me fall in love with guild wars. Bummer though, we don't have such a meta in PoF with a big kitten boss like that. Honestly, one big world boss meta should be a staple in every expansion in gw2.We may get one in the next LS update... Fingers Crossed!

its funny how i hated hot when it came out(bad playstyle but i did learn to be better) but now i play the metas more than the pof and enjoy them when i do them. to tell the truth i dont recall if there are any pof ones

It is a shame PoF did not have an equivalent. PoF devs really dropped the ball

@wickedkae.4980 said:It is a shame PoF did not have an equivalent. PoF devs really dropped the ball

I imagine it was quite a lot of work creating mounts and everything that's involved.

My guild and I go back to the HoT areas all the time, they are beautiful and there are lots of things to do. We only go to the PoF area if we need hero points. If there is another expansion, I hope the land is as beautiful and complicated as HoT.