Use of mounts in low level zones

[Keegan.2964]

I created a new character and was taking her through the five starter zones. In a lot of the dynamic events, you get attacked by waves of bad guys. Rather than wait for the bad guys to come to us, someone with a mount, typically a raptor or skyscale, would rapidly move to where the bad guys spawned and kill all of them before anyone else got a hit in. This happened over and over again in event after event. In an event as simple as the Wurm Event in Wayfarer Foothills where they're attacking the door of the inn, some guy, over and over again, got on his raptor and attacked.

Starter zones USED to have Champions but now they don't. I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that mounts should be prohibited in starter zones.

Speaking of mounts, there needs to be a "Mute" option for the mount sound affects. The noise the Skyscale makes when it belches fire every few seconds is supremely annoying, annoying to the point I turn my speakers off. As for the Skyscale, it would be nice if you could disable the visual effects as well because when one is hovering over your head, all the garbage that gets thrown up from the ground, not to mention being hit in the head repeatedly by their wings, is annoying.

[Ray Koopa.2354]

By Gadd don't disable them. There are people requiring to do world completion which are thankful about this gift of speed. But nerf their power more in starter zones like it has been done before.

About the sound effects, I wish the skyscale would just belch less. It's like belching every 3 seconds. Did they not grow a proper stomach or are our characters feeding them trash?

[Danikat.8537]

They need to have another look at scaling generally, especially for level 80's in starter maps. Mounts are one common way of doing this but they're not the only way, most level 80 characters with a few AoE skills can achieve the same thing just as easily. Recently I was just about to reach the "Kill the Son of Svanir and his corrupted wolf pack" event in Wayfarer Foothills when a level 80 guardian used a teleport skill to get ahead of me and killed the boss and both wolves in about 3 seconds with a greatsword. That was especially annoying because it finished the entire event, rather than just dominating one spawn point.

Ultimately of course the problem is players who aren't thinking about anything except themselves and finishing the event as quickly as possible for their own benefit, but it's difficult to address that directly, and adjusting scaling would have other benefits too. For one thing the people doing this often want to tag as many enemies as possible for drops and if they're not wiping out everything in sight the instant they spawn (or become vulnerable) there's more time for the event to scale up and spawn more enemies, or for them to tag enemies at multiple spawn points and then join in with killing them.

[aspirine.6852]

Raptor skill1 should not do damage and perhaps the main problem is solved.

[Teratus.2859]

Scaling problem more than anything, I agree their attacks need to be nerfed down a bit in low level areas.I try to avoid doing this, if im the only one in the event sure I'll Raptor away but if others are about i'll limit my use of mount skills or avoid them completely.. it's just polite.

[Atomos.7593]

I am of the opinion that mounts should have been restricted to PoF maps, but of course it's too late for that now. The older areas weren't really designed with mounts in mind and some of the mounts make the exploration trivial when they were not be meant to be quite that easy.

[otto.5684]

@"Keegan.2964" said:I created a new character and was taking her through the five starter zones. In a lot of the dynamic events, you get attacked by waves of bad guys. Rather than wait for the bad guys to come to us, someone with a mount, typically a raptor or skyscale, would rapidly move to where the bad guys spawned and kill all of them before anyone else got a hit in. This happened over and over again in event after event. In an event as simple as the Wurm Event in Wayfarer Foothills where they're attacking the door of the inn, some guy, over and over again, got on his raptor and attacked.

Starter zones USED to have Champions but now they don't. I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that mounts should be prohibited in starter zones.

Speaking of mounts, there needs to be a "Mute" option for the mount sound affects. The noise the Skyscale makes when it belches fire every few seconds is supremely annoying, annoying to the point I turn my speakers off. As for the Skyscale, it would be nice if you could disable the visual effects as well because when one is hovering over your head, all the garbage that gets thrown up from the ground, not to mention being hit in the head repeatedly by their wings, is annoying.

Ya.. if you are level 80 in a starter zone you want to cognizant of not aoe all mobs, wither using mount or not. However, I do not agree with disabling mounts in starter zones.

Also, there has been no change in starter zones at all in the last 5-6 years, if ever. Level 1-15 rarely have champions.

[Ogwom.7940]

Until they fix scaling issues, the only thing that can be done that can mitigate the problem could be to just think about other people around you.I see level 80s and lower levels nuking mobs before I can tag them when completing certain hearts which is quite annoying. If another person is around, I will tag a mob and wait to see if the person will attack. If they do, then both of us get progress for the heart.

At the moment, just be considerate of others until ANet can find resolution to this issue.

[Keegan.2964]

@otto.5684 said:

@Keegan.2964 said:

Also, there has been no change in starter zones at all in the last 5-6 years, if ever. Level 1-15 rarely have champions.

Queensdale, alone, had 5 champions: Troll, Wasp, Boar, Bandit, Oakheart. They were downgraded to Veterans.

[Nerus.7510]

@"Danikat.8537" said:Recently I was just about to reach the "Kill the Son of Svanir and his corrupted wolf pack" event in Wayfarer Foothills when a level 80 guardian used a teleport skill to get ahead of me and killed the boss and both wolves in about 3 seconds with a greatsword.If it was yesterday., that may have been me, sorry; I was a little on autopilot and didn't realise that I would kill it so quickly. I forgot that level scaling doesn't really level the playing field. I was passing through on my way to Frostgorge Sound, and joining events as I went through to make the trip less dull.

I don't have a mount yet, still going through HoT story, so it was just the default greatsword leap.

[Danikat.8537]

@Nerus.7510 said:

@"Danikat.8537" said:Recently I was just about to reach the "Kill the Son of Svanir and his corrupted wolf pack" event in Wayfarer Foothills when a level 80 guardian used a teleport skill to get ahead of me and killed the boss and both wolves in about 3 seconds with a greatsword.If it was yesterday., that may have been me, sorry; I was a little on autopilot and didn't realise that I would kill it so quickly. I forgot that level scaling doesn't really level the playing field. I was passing through on my way to Frostgorge Sound, and joining events as I went through to make the trip less dull.

I don't have a mount yet, still going through HoT story, so it was just the default greatsword leap.

It wasn't yesterday, it was a couple of weeks ago. It also wasn't a big deal, I was a bit disappointed at the time but I was just trying to level up so I didn't need to do that event specifically. I found other stuff to get XP from. :)

This does help prove the point though - it's really easy to do this if you're on a level 80 character. You don't need to make a build for it or practice using mount attacks or whatever, it can happen when you're just playing normally, which makes it hard for players to avoid doing it unless they remember to make a special effort not to.

@Ogwom.7940 said:Until they fix scaling issues, the only thing that can be done that can mitigate the problem could be to just think about other people around you.I see level 80s and lower levels nuking mobs before I can tag them when completing certain hearts which is quite annoying. If another person is around, I will tag a mob and wait to see if the person will attack. If they do, then both of us get progress for the heart.

At the moment, just be considerate of others until ANet can find resolution to this issue.

I try to do that too. It's surprisingly easy to out-damage a genuinely new player, even on a low level character using only dropped/level reward gear. Even that early on knowing which stats and skills to pick and how to use them effectively can make a big difference, as can knowing where to go to catch enemies as they appear, so if there's anyone else around I try to hold back from doing too much damage.

Although as I said above it can be really easy to kill things quickly if you're not thinking about it, even for me and I'm not the best player. I've also run into an additional problem sometimes where lower level players will copy the high level ones, so if I stop attacking they stop too. Which would be great in some specific events but not so much in starter maps.

[Cragga the Eighty Third.60]

I agree that on the lowest-level maps, it would be good to nerf the high-level attacks more, and not just on mounts. When you are used to attacking a group of mobs with a raptor spin (or a greatsword spin) you often do it without even thinking until the 'oops' afterward. Sometimes I only mean to dismount, and hit the '1' by reflex.

That having been said, it's still not going to fix the people problem. While plenty of players may be doing this just through momentary thoughtlessness or carelessness, or because they don't see anyone else around trying to tackle the same event, so no reason to hold back, the game has lots of people who get their jollies out of annoying other players with pranks and irritating behavior, or people whose ego won't allow them to relax and let anyone else get some hits in. (On escort, MUST KILL EVERY MOB PERSONALLY!. MUST NOT RISK NOT GETTING GOLD!)

Nerfing stuff won't solve it all, because these people will still appear in great enough numbers to overwhelm the slow, inexperienced and badly-equipped.

[Game of Bones.8975]

TL:DR all postsSorry if it's already been asked and answered.Is mount damage scaled as well as the player in < Level 80 zones?I use mounts like most everyone else and only the Waypoints for great distances.It does wonders for map completion: skipping mobs, reaching heights easier, and it's generally fun to race around.The only other "fix" may be to have them unlock for Level 80 characters only.

[Teratus.2859]

@Keegan.2964 said:

@otto.5684 said:

@Keegan.2964 said:

Also, there has been no change in starter zones at all in the last 5-6 years, if ever. Level 1-15 rarely have champions.

Queensdale, alone, had 5 champions: Troll, Wasp, Boar, Bandit, Oakheart. They were downgraded to Veterans.

Aye, It's a shame they changed those.It was done because people were farming them for champ bags if I recall, all Champs in starter maps got downgraded as well I think.Considering how much new content there is since then I wouldn't mind seeing these champs come back.

[Danikat.8537]

@Teratus.2859 said:

@Keegan.2964 said:

@otto.5684 said:

@Keegan.2964 said:

Also, there has been no change in starter zones at all in the last 5-6 years, if ever. Level 1-15 rarely have champions.

Queensdale, alone, had 5 champions: Troll, Wasp, Boar, Bandit, Oakheart. They were downgraded to Veterans.

Aye, It's a shame they changed those.It was done because people were farming them for champ bags if I recall, all Champs in starter maps got downgraded as well I think.Considering how much new content there is since then I wouldn't mind seeing these champs come back.

If it was just that people were farming them it may not have been a problem. But it resulted in large farming trains dominating the map and often getting quite agressive if anyone made the mistake of attacking, or even triggering, a champion when they weren't there. Map chat could get quite nasty if it was a farming map. On top of that they were often the first high level players newbies encountered, and if they asked what there is to do once you get to level 80 the answer was of course to come back to starter maps and endlessly farm champions for gold. Overall it wasn't a great first impression for the game or it's players and it wouldn't surprise me if it put some people off.

Champion farming trains still exist, they've just been moved out of the starter maps. Although they're also less popular than they were because the named exotics from champion bags aren't worth as much any more, and there's more reliable ways to make gold now too.

[Croc.1978]

Hmm, is this really a problem at the moment? My experience in the last couple of months on EU has rather been a bit different:

• while doing an event, the vast majority of people in core maps stay unmounted
• when leveling alts, many if not most people refrain from using their mounts all the time, in contrast to what they do in Lvl80 maps
• I see people all the time holding back in core maps so that others may get event participation as well
• when I do witness reckless playing it's usually when the map in question has the event daily

Right now I am leveling an alt (using mounts only rarely, e.g. to reach a vista) and I cannot confirm your experience. Sure, one often comes too late to those kill-that-single-veteran events, but this is a matter of a badly designed / badly scaling event not of the players.

[Wrong Device.3014]

Not long ago I created a new character and wanted to slowly and "peacefully" level up in oldschool way without mount, just running around, talking to NPCs and doing events (yes, nostalgia). It's really hard, much harder than 6-8 years ago. It's not pastoral anymore. Everything is rushed. I can't catch up to any event. And even if I get to event, everything is wiped by mounts.I don't think it's right to ban mounts in low-level zones, but their abilities must be downscaled. I don't know how though.

[Ayrilana.1396]

@Keegan.2964 said:I created a new character and was taking her through the five starter zones. In a lot of the dynamic events, you get attacked by waves of bad guys. Rather than wait for the bad guys to come to us, someone with a mount, typically a raptor or skyscale, would rapidly move to where the bad guys spawned and kill all of them before anyone else got a hit in. This happened over and over again in event after event. In an event as simple as the Wurm Event in Wayfarer Foothills where they're attacking the door of the inn, some guy, over and over again, got on his raptor and attacked.

Just an FYI that people can easily do this with AoE skills as well.

[Ototo.3214]

I really hate people that do this. I try my best to make sure I hold back and let others get a tag on stuff if I see them coming toward an event. It's what I'd want others to do for me and when people just completely obliterate stuff without letting others get credit it just really rubs me the wrong way.

I will say, I don't want mounts to be completely disabled on some maps, but they could really use some better scaling. Level 80s in general could too, honestly.

[Linken.6345]

@Teratus.2859 said:

@Keegan.2964 said:

@otto.5684 said:

@Keegan.2964 said:

Also, there has been no change in starter zones at all in the last 5-6 years, if ever. Level 1-15 rarely have champions.

Queensdale, alone, had 5 champions: Troll, Wasp, Boar, Bandit, Oakheart. They were downgraded to Veterans.

Aye, It's a shame they changed those.It was done because people were farming them for champ bags if I recall, all Champs in starter maps got downgraded as well I think.Considering how much new content there is since then I wouldn't mind seeing these champs come back.

No you still have the champion grawl shaman in plains of ashford.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

Its a problem with scaling in general. Level 80, fully-geared characters with good builds are extremely powerful; you could put them in white quality gear and they'd still wipe everything out because they have so many tools available to them (mainly AoE skills).

You can solo all the downscaled story dungeons and most of the explorables just by power creep alone.

But there's been thread after thread of players arguing about it and no developments.

[Chichimec.9364]

@Danikat.8537 said:...Ultimately of course the problem is players who aren't thinking about anything except themselves...This. The problem isn't mounts. The real problem is this kind of attitude. When doing dailies on core maps, I'll throw up a mentor tag and call out the kind of event and the nearest waypoint on map chat when I come across an event. So I see a lot of player behavior. A few people will often range out ahead of everyone else attempting to kill all incoming enemies before others even get near enough to attack. Some of those ranging folks are on mounts, some are not. In either case, their goal seems to be to hit first and hit the hardest, irregardless of other folks trying to tag in. Eliminating mounts won't eliminate that kind of behavior.