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If you wanted to keep raids as a game mode, how would you increase participation?


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Anet has indicated their intention for raids to be the most challenging PvE content in the game.

Since raids came out, there have been requests for Anet to create an easy mode and it’s fairly obvious that Anet is aware of these. They’ve stated that fractals were a stepping stone to raids and went as far as creating strikes to also be a stepping stone.

It’s safe to assume that at this time, Anet still intends for raids to remain the most challenging PvE content in the game.

EDIT:

I have no intention of arguing further about the above. All of these are actual facts based on their forum posts, articles, livestreams. They’ve given no public indication of reversing their stance which I’m aware of.

Edit 2: Adding links as I find them.

I can’t find the post about fractals being a stepping stone but I see many posts of people mentioning it.

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Anet has also indicated that they won't rule out story modes for raids.Source: https://pcgamesn.com/guild-wars-2/pvp-raids-world-restructuring

Specifically this part:

Is there room for a ‘story’ difficulty in raids and other high-end content?

MZ: There is. There’s a constant, constant tug. Do we go build new raids for the raid group, or do we pull somebody to go make the old raids easier? The Bastion of the Penitent is one that we get a lot of comments on, because it’s the Saul D’Alessio story and the mursaat. It’s a very powerful, moving story, and it was very self-contained to that raid. So unless you’re a raider, you never see it.

I would not rule it out. The thing that we need to be careful about is how we manage that expectation. Because if we go back and release ‘story mode’ for an individual raid, that is taking time away from other things like being able to build additional raid content for the raiders. We want to make sure that we’re trying to service both groups.

What sticks out to me specifically is:

We want to make sure that we’re trying to service both groups.

As for strike missions, this quote is pretty interesting:

This is an opportunity for us to find ways to service one tier and potentially service the hardcore audience that is already there.

So we can safely assume that if Anet were to create new raids, they'd try to "service both groups".I also have no intention to argue, just posting these factual statements from an interview where they've played with the idea of story modes and similiar things.

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Unfortunately inferences are not fact. Nowhere did they indicate that any future raid would have a story mode. Being open to the idea is very different from saying that the next raid would have it. Them indicating that they're using strikes as a means to service both groups doesn't necessarily mean that they'll do the same for future raids.

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The "service both groups of players" was actually regarding raids, not strikes. You might have to read it again. The source is already there ;)So yes, that directly is a factual indication that they want to create raids that service both groups, if they ever were to create new ones.

I've also already included what they said about SMs: servicing one tier, while potentially servicing the hardcore audience. Not sure how you mixxed that up.Also, no point in arguing. Anet made those factual statements, not me.

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@"Raknar.4735" said:The "service both groups of players" was actually regarding raids. You might have to read it again. The source is already there ;)I've also already included what they said about SMs: servicing one tier, while potentially servicing the hardcore audience.

I edited the post as you wrote this and clarified that part.

The issue is that you used that article to present as fact that any future raid would service both the hardcore players and those that wanted a story mode when no such statement was made. An assumption is being made on them not wanting to take time away from making new raids in order to add a story mode and them saying they're trying to create content for both groups with strikes.

I've also already included what they said about SMs: servicing one tier, while potentially servicing the hardcore audience. Not sure how you mixxed that up.Also, no point in arguing. Anet made those factual statements, not me.

Saw the edit. The only issue that I have with what you said is the assertion that new raids would service both groups. Nowhere did they make that statement so it's not a fact.

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@Ayrilana.1396 said:

@"Raknar.4735" said:The "service both groups of players" was actually regarding raids. You might have to read it again. The source is already there ;)I've also already included what they said about SMs: servicing one tier, while potentially servicing the hardcore audience.

I edited the post as you wrote this and clarified that part.

The issue is that you used that article to present as fact that any future raid would service both the hardcore players and those that wanted a story mode when no such statement was made. An assumption is being made on them not wanting to take time away from making new raids in order to add a story mode and them saying they're trying to create content for both groups with strikes.

I've also edited my post as you wrote this. Sorry, but that article is just as much a fact as your link back to 2016. They've changed their stance and are "at a constant , constant tug" about story mode.The "We want to service both groups" is not an assumption Anet made. It's a clear statement. Not sure why you're arguing here. It's what Anet stated.

Edit:

Saw the edit. The only issue that I have with what you said is the assertion that new raids would service both groups. Nowhere did they make that statement so it's not a fact.They made that statement in the article that they "want to make sure that we’re trying to service both groups.", so it's a fact.

Also last response, I stated I didn't want to argue about a statement factually Anet made. You'll have to argue with Anet directly about how wrong they're about their own factual statement. ;)

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@Raknar.4735 said:

@Raknar.4735 said:The "service both groups of players" was actually regarding raids. You might have to read it again. The source is already there ;)I've also already included what they said about SMs: servicing one tier, while potentially servicing the hardcore audience.

I edited the post as you wrote this and clarified that part.

The issue is that you used that article to present as fact that any future raid would service both the hardcore players and those that wanted a story mode when no such statement was made. An assumption is being made on them not wanting to take time away from making new raids in order to add a story mode and them saying they're trying to create content for both groups with strikes.

I've also edited my post as you wrote this. Sorry, but that article is just as much a fact as your link back to 2016. They've changed their stance and "at a constant , constant tug".The "We want to service both groups" is not an assumption Anet made. It's a clear statement. Not sure why you're arguing here. It's what Anet stated.

Edit:

Saw the edit. The only issue that I have with what you said is the assertion that new raids would service both groups. Nowhere did they make that statement so it's not a fact.They made that statement in the article that they "want to make sure that we’re trying to service both groups.", so it's a fact.

What they said is a fact regarding if they were to go back an add a story mode. It's not a fact that future raids would have it. They also said that they would not rule out having a story mode. This is not the same as saying that future raids would have it.

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@Ayrilana.1396 said:It’s safe to assume that at this time, Anet still intends for raids to remain the most challenging PvE content in the game.Sure they do. It's not like they will ever try to introduce anything more challenging, after all.

Also, notice how that first quote came from the time where they still thought raids would be a success. And when they were talking about releasing several wings per year. Nowadays they know exactly how that ended. With release schedule not getting accelerated, and raid content ultimately getting abandoned.

They’ve given no public indication of reversing their stance which I’m aware of.Indeed, because their current stance is that they can't justify any further work on raids at all. So, obviously, any attempt to make them work on raids again would require doing some rethinking first, because they would hardly attempt to once more start working on this content if it were to lead to the same end as before.

So, basically, raids will either remain abandoned (most likely), or Anet will have to change at least some of their old design decisions and intentions about it. Thus, i would not put too much thought in all those statements.

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@lare.5129 said:

@"Antioche.7034" said:The only way to give an incentive to raids is simply to make the rewards better. Right now 95+% of raiders are making less money than people farming AB or Dragonfall brainlessly. "Why would I take time learning raids if I can just farm and get more rewards".it ok to make raid to, if you not need for that spend hour on golema and learn meta-rotation. People looking game, not work.

There are a bunch of people ready to help you progress, but there are not many people that wish to progress.I am not sure that this is "progress". More look like it is play by some rules.

I've raided with a dozen of training guilds, and you don't even want to know how many people actually ask for advices on rotations etc, because it is close to 0.yes, beause for many players "rotation" is not game and is not fun. We want attract them ?

Yeah, people are looking for a game but spend hours to farm dragonfall like mindless beasts, sure. Arguying rotations are work is absolutely ridiculous, you have stuff to learn in literally every game and MMOs are definately not an exception."Play by some rules" : Yes, welcome to the concept of "game", that's indeed the definition.I don't really mind if we don't attract people that do not actually want to play a game.

P.S : If you could try to do a little bit of effort on your posts, that'd be cool, because even if you don't speak English very well or whatever reason it's actually a bit hard to read with typos and stuff ^_^Though if you're on phone it might be annoying.

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@voltaicbore.8012 said:

I would counter that there is something especially regressive and entrenched about the GW2 playerbase.

Exactly. If you postulate this, then there is absolutely no point in doing any changes to raids, because virtually ANY effort that has to be done will be considered too much. Then it just defeats the purpose of the raid to adapt the difficulty and people might aswell ask to transform raids into OpenWorld.It's hard to make generalities though, so changes might be impactful for some players and then it is just up to everyone to decide whether or not they consider it 'worth' doing. Sort of an endless debate.

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@Astralporing.1957 said:

@Ayrilana.1396 said:It’s safe to assume that at this time, Anet still intends for raids to remain the most challenging PvE content in the game.Sure they do. It's not like they will ever try to introduce anything more challenging, after all.

Also, notice how that first quote came from the time where they still thought raids would be a success. And when they were talking about releasing several wings per year. Nowadays they know exactly how that ended. With release schedule
not
getting accelerated, and raid content ultimately getting abandoned.

They’ve given no public indication of reversing their stance which I’m aware of.Indeed, because their current stance is that they can't justify any further work on raids at all. So, obviously, any attempt to make them work on raids again would require doing some rethinking first, because they would hardly attempt to once more start working on this content if it were to lead to the same end as before.

So, basically, raids will either remain abandoned (most likely), or Anet will have to change at least some of their old design decisions and intentions about it. Thus, i would not put too much thought in all those statements.

So you agree. Awesome.

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@Ayrilana.1396 said:So you agree. Awesome.You might want to reread what i said.

Or i'll give you a TL/DR version:I said, that the only reason why they might not want to deviate from their original design is if they don't want to touch raids ever again. If they will decide at some point to revive raids however, some changes to original ideas are practically certain.

I also pointed out that they were making more statements at that time, and the history has shown that at least some of them were either mistaken, or never put into practice at all.

So, basically, those original dev statements no longer matter as much as you think they do.

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Make raids repeatable on daily basis however consequent kills in the weeks don't award LI and shards but just some gold/mats. That may bring motivation to do wings more often and maybe invite not so experienced players.

first kills in raids should give higher monetary rewards (e.g. 5 mystic coins per kill). Maybe add some collection for some cool skins that would require a lot of runs.

Make random queue for raids with few roles however with reduced difficulty and less rewards (no LI but maybe some kind of token so you can prove you have seen the boss).

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@"zealex.9410" said:Add a easy mode, make cms more intricate to please that crowd and fix the cadense, once a year isnt sustainable, we should be getting at least 2 a year (2 3or4 encounter wings that is).

Also keep up with drms esque content and strikes, they normalise group content in the casual playerbase which is one of the bigger issue with the playerbase, its not necessarily the dificulty its mostly that many ppl dont do group content for whatever reason.

This last part you said is why adding an easy mode would never work for Raids. There are a lot of arguments on the forums about adding difficulty tiers, an easier mode, or a story mode for Raids. How exactly would adding that help, if something like the Shiverpeak Pass (can't get easier than that) isn't popular either. Or how the content with all the tiers (Fractals) doesn't get releases either, it's been 6 months and we are in silent mode, bugs still plague the latest fractal, it's probably abandoned, again.

Wait until we get a stable Fractal cadence of 2 a year, and/or Strike Mission 2 a year, and IF that happens then the argument of "easy mode for Raids" or "tiers for Raids" would make any kind of sense. And besides, if an easy mode is considered they'd have to implement one for the current Raids first right? So even more time and wasted resources to make new ones.

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it is easy: make Raid Attunement 1, Raid Attunement 2, Raid Attunement 3 and Raid Attunement 4 !Wiht mostly same Effect type: and bonus at 1, 2,3, 4 .. on 4 same gain 7% outgoing damage, and 100 health per second, less 4% incoming damageTitle Raid God, same requement to buy Attunement, so it on 4 it will be 2000 li, 300 matrix, ...

Solved?

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@Krzysztof.5973 said:

@Shaogin.2679 said:Honestly the only thing I would change with Raids is to create better introductions to the mechanics of the raid fights. Going into a brand new fight and wiping over and over simply because you're trying to figure out what the hell is killing you isn't really fun, and most people will just wait for some sort of guide to come out for it. The Vale Guardian is a perfect example of a Raid boss done right. You fight the three aspects first, each of which introduce you to a mechanic of the upcoming boss one at a time. Hell, even something as simple as an npc that gives you a quick overview of the upcoming fight in some sort of cinematic or something would be a huge improvement.

Can you give me an example of raid mechanic that cannot be figured out within 1-2 wipes?

I think the point is that many of the players that don't participate in raids aren't willing to 'figure out' raid mechanics with 1 or 2 wipes. Players aren't going to eat content they don't like the taste of, especially if there is other content they do.

Again, we have to get away from the idea that players need to 'step up' so they can participate in hard content. That's NOT going to work. I don't really care how much you 'train' people or how they are trained ... if the content is a level of difficulty they don't want to experience, whether they are trained for it or not, they simply won't do it. They might not even be willing to subject themselves to the difficulty they may experience from the 'training'.

We also have to recognize that there are OTHER barriers that aren't related to mechanics familiarity that are also keeping players from doing raids as well, so there isn't just ONE thing that needs to happen if we want to consider how to maximize raid participation.

I believe there is a small portion of the population that would participate in raids if the 'mechanics' barrier was overcome with more raids mechanics overlap in other parts of the game. I also believe this is the most significant way to attract more players to raids that will actually be able to succeed doing them. But it still can't be at a level where players feel punished or blocked from progression if they DON'T 'get gud' with those overlapping mechanics.

Basically, players need more exposure to the mechanics, need enticing ways to experience those mechanics, but also have the options to not expose themselves to them if they choose not to.

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@Firebeard.1746 said:I have an idea, I'm sure it'll get torn to shreds because people who actually profit from raids right now will lose something, so if you criticize my post, you need to post how you'd fix them. Almost every effective MMO out there uses them to bring people together and do them together, so there's definitely a core design flaw.

I can identify two issues:

1) There's no incentive for grouping with new people - the rewards only come faster the more experienced your group2) The scale sucks. 10 man raids don't involve many people, so they're not truly a guild-level activity. Raids are supposed to be.

Here's the idea: move most of the rewards to guild missions tied to them: Remove all gold, magnetite shards, gaeting crystals and exotic loot from the raids during a normal clear. They’ll still drop LI/LDs and collection materials for people in the same fashion for people that want to do them outside of guild missions for legendaries.

Then, implement a new guild mission that works as follows:

1) It starts with a squad of 30 people, 10 in each subgroup. The mission is only startable this way. I’d be fine if this was down to 20, as that’s just shy of a wow raid, but the idea here is that more participation is better.2)The squad leader selects a raid, then a timer for 30mins to an hour for the guild mission appears for each sub group. Each group is ported into its own instance. The timer for the mission only counts down while the squad is in combat. The chests still drop LIs/KP/Achievement pieces3) If a wing is cleared, the squad is able to port to another wing of their choosing (if there’s a leutenant commander or commander in a group, they pick)4) At the end of all timers for each subgroup, a chest with gold, magnetite shards, gaeting crystals and exotics appears for the members (the magnetite/gaeting ratio is determined by where the time was spent in raid) . If a player was not active during the whole run, their results are scaled for the amount of time they were active.

The missions could also be coded to allow varying sizes of squad, but with the catch that each subgroup of 10 added increases the rewards.

This guild mission could be repeated up to a certain maximum number of times per week.

People cannot be removed from squad. If they DC or are toxic they can be placed in one of the inactive squad groups and then replaced with someone else invited to squad.

The goal is to keep people engaged, trying & encourage as much cooperation as possible by tying the rewards to the timer and participation, hence the timer will only go down as people participate in encounters & kicking can’t be done & there’s a cap on the number of replacements you can bring -> generous enough to allow for problems, but not so generous that you turn people into your LI machine.

People will still only get legendary rewards from actually clearing the encounters & they can still be sold by private sellers, but the real economic rewards from raid participation will come from coordinating and working with a large number of people in a guild, hopefully turning it into a social activity.

A common refrain will probably be: Aren’t you turning it into a participation rewards?

My response: Isn’t it already just a participation reward? Anyone doing them now only wants a participation reward. They don’t want to teach anyone or work with anyone, that’s why there’s so much KP requirements and why people stop and/or can’t start. Now you’re rewarded by playing with and working with the community instead of grinding out that 2g + exotic + shards as fast as you can.

Now, the only thing affected by your skill is your legendary progression rate. Squads aren’t penalized as heavily for trying a harder boss for someone’s collection but can still LI farm if that’s the goal. Guilds could even have different groups do different things -> training, LI farming, achieve farming and you join the squad that matches what you want.

Also, this could help revitalize guilds as a mainframe for community interactions. My best experiences in this game come from working with guild mates and I think it's sad guild missions just don't cut it.

I'd probably still box myself out of raids with this design because of my chaotic schedule, but I think it might have potential of doing good.

A guild mission that splits the squad into three different groups working on three different goals on three different instances is not a guild activity - and is why the PVP guild missions (which do this now) are buggy as hell and dont work for anyone other than very small guilds. If they want to bring back guild missions (and they should), this is not the way to do it.

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@maddoctor.2738 said:

@zealex.9410 said:Add a easy mode, make cms more intricate to please that crowd and fix the cadense, once a year isnt sustainable, we should be getting at least 2 a year (2 3or4 encounter wings that is).

Also keep up with drms esque content and strikes, they normalise group content in the casual playerbase which is one of the bigger issue with the playerbase, its not necessarily the dificulty its mostly that many ppl dont do group content for whatever reason.

This last part you said is why adding an easy mode would never work for Raids. There are a lot of arguments on the forums about adding difficulty tiers, an easier mode, or a story mode for Raids. How exactly would adding that help, if something like the Shiverpeak Pass (can't get easier than that) isn't popular either. Or how the content with all the tiers (Fractals) doesn't get releases either, it's been 6 months and we are in silent mode, bugs still plague the latest fractal, it's probably abandoned, again.

I'm not sure i agree wirh your assesment on strikes. I feel like more people are doing them than raids, but even if you're right, most of this could be chalked up to the game design.

Mmo players are mostly driven by rewards because mmos like to tack long term goals on to players. Strikes don't stand out in that regard, they're best for new players with no crafting maxed as far as progression goes. Compounding this issue is 2 are artificially drawn out, shiverpeaks and cold war, shiver because of its puzzle, cw2 because of its pre event.

Also, they're very integrated with ib masteries, making them fall even shorter in that niche if newer players haven't purchased the episodes with essence masteries because of some of the clutch break bars involved

Further decreasing their effectiveness/draw is anet decided to add another completely new PVE mode to distract from them just after their launch, with its own set of masteries and a special and unique weapon collection.

That being said, i haven't had issues finding parties for strikes when i've cared, and i'd like to more often. but generally don't have the time on top of my other objectives. The LA has disincentivized pretty much anything that doesn't give a legendary. Fractals are still somewhat relevant because of the amount of raw cash they give for buying non specific materials (mats gifts of blood, etc) they also give matrices that are needed for gen2 weapons and just about any trinket.

I really think anet needs to pick a couple end game modes and work to make them work for all players and only add new ones as they can support them. I don't mind the season 5 experiments but i really want to see them close on something by the time EoD rolls around. Most mmos go the raiding route hence the start of this discussion.

And sadly if i didn't know any better it feels like the current team like /played time metrics given what i've seen so far. Which is a bit dangerous given how rewarding some other content is. You wanr your players engaged in the new stuff as much as possible and they should be very cautious about farming strategies etc vs old content.

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@Astralporing.1957 said:

@Ayrilana.1396 said:So you agree. Awesome.You might want to reread what i said.

Or i'll give you a TL/DR version:I said, that the only reason why they might not want to deviate from their original design is if they don't want to touch raids ever again. If they will decide at some point to revive raids however, some changes to original ideas are practically certain.

I also pointed out that they were making more statements at that time, and the history has shown that at least some of them were either mistaken, or never put into practice at all.

So, basically, those original dev statements no longer matter as much as you think they do.

Well everything I said was what Anet has already stated. So either you agree with their posts or you don't. Anything else you may have included had nothing to do specifically with my post (i.e. a different, although related tangent) so there was no reason to quote me.

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@maddoctor.2738 said:

@"zealex.9410" said:Add a easy mode, make cms more intricate to please that crowd and fix the cadense, once a year isnt sustainable, we should be getting at least 2 a year (2 3or4 encounter wings that is).

Also keep up with drms esque content and strikes, they normalise group content in the casual playerbase which is one of the bigger issue with the playerbase, its not necessarily the dificulty its mostly that many ppl dont do group content for whatever reason.

This last part you said is why adding an easy mode would never work for Raids. There are a lot of arguments on the forums about adding difficulty tiers, an easier mode, or a story mode for Raids. How exactly would adding that help, if something like the Shiverpeak Pass (can't get easier than that) isn't popular either. Or how the content with all the tiers (Fractals) doesn't get releases either, it's been 6 months and we are in silent mode, bugs still plague the latest fractal, it's probably abandoned, again.

Wait until we get a stable Fractal cadence of 2 a year, and/or Strike Mission 2 a year, and IF that happens then the argument of "easy mode for Raids" or "tiers for Raids" would make any kind of sense. And besides, if an easy mode is considered they'd have to implement one for the current Raids first right? So even more time and wasted resources to make new ones.

I dont view dificulty modes as a ladder for ppl to climb and learn the fights, realistically an easy mode wouldnt prepare you all that much for cms (maybe for normal if you do your own research on top). I say introduce a baseline easy mode simply to get more buck from the work already put into raids (the va, music, enemy models, etc) by reusing whats there. The fights would need to be changed up to fit the purpose of the mode, but, every raid moving forward that has a very accessible mode and a very challenging mode at least makes sure alot of the work can be experience by the highest amount of ppl possible. As for going back to do work on onlder stuff, that goes both ways, almost half the wing dont have a cm either so its an opportunity to introduce one, maybe they coupd go to the existing ones as well and change them up to fit more the challenging status that they represent.

This last year has been in a weird spot tbh, we are pretty much experiencing the post hot drought all over again and i doubt till we get eod things will change.

Im saying what i think they should do, the most importand thing regardless is that there needs to be a community fostering cadence of releases, the rest are toppings that imo can help grow the scene.

Btw have you posted any strike statistics yet?

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@Firebeard.1746 said:

@zealex.9410 said:Add a easy mode, make cms more intricate to please that crowd and fix the cadense, once a year isnt sustainable, we should be getting at least 2 a year (2 3or4 encounter wings that is).

Also keep up with drms esque content and strikes, they normalise group content in the casual playerbase which is one of the bigger issue with the playerbase, its not necessarily the dificulty its mostly that many ppl dont do group content for whatever reason.

This last part you said is why adding an easy mode would never work for Raids. There are a lot of arguments on the forums about adding difficulty tiers, an easier mode, or a story mode for Raids. How exactly would adding that help, if something like the Shiverpeak Pass (can't get easier than that) isn't popular either. Or how the content with all the tiers (Fractals) doesn't get releases either, it's been 6 months and we are in silent mode, bugs still plague the latest fractal, it's probably abandoned, again.

I'm not sure i agree wirh your assesment on strikes. I feel like more people are doing them than raids, but even if you're right, most of this could be chalked up to the game design.

Mmo players are mostly driven by rewards because mmos like to tack long term goals on to players. Strikes don't stand out in that regard, they're best for new players with no crafting maxed as far as progression goes. Compounding this issue is 2 are artificially drawn out, shiverpeaks and cold war, shiver because of its puzzle, cw2 because of its pre event.

Also, they're very integrated with ib masteries, making them fall even shorter in that niche if newer players haven't purchased the episodes with essence masteries because of some of the clutch break bars involved

Further decreasing their effectiveness/draw is anet decided to add another completely new PVE mode to distract from them just after their launch, with its own set of masteries and a special and unique weapon collection.

That being said, i haven't had issues finding parties for strikes when i've cared, and i'd like to more often. but generally don't have the time on top of my other objectives. The LA has disincentivized pretty much anything that doesn't give a legendary. Fractals are still somewhat relevant because of the amount of raw cash they give for buying non specific materials (mats gifts of blood, etc) they also give matrices that are needed for gen2 weapons and just about any trinket.

I really think anet needs to pick a couple end game modes and work to make them work for all players and only add new ones as they can support them. I don't mind the season 5 experiments but i really want to see them close on something by the time EoD rolls around. Most mmos go the raiding route hence the start of this discussion.

And sadly if i didn't know any better it feels like the current team like /played time metrics given what i've seen so far. Which is a bit dangerous given how rewarding some other content is. You wanr your players engaged in the new stuff as much as possible and they should be very cautious about farming strategies etc vs old content.

I think a lot of ppl struggle with the idea of playing in groups because largely outside of endgame gw2 is solo oriented with the occasional world event where you are in a soft group. Strikes and drms deal with this problem directly because they are the immideately accessible instanced group content thats related to lw story that new players are likely to engage with while gearing/lvling.Because of that, i think lw needs to incorporate the drm format to the story as well as having the big boss fights also exist as strikes. Its a good way imo to introduce ppl to group content (same thing also exist in ff14 and its working rather well id say) which in it self will open them up to raids and fractals more easily.

Drm like content/strikes, fractals and raids should be the instanced content the game keeps moving forward. Its all a matter of finding a good cadense to release them.

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@"Firebeard.1746" said:snip

I agree with you about the rewards and we've seen instanced content attract a large audience, when rewards were great: "Swamps of the Mists", "Fractal scale 40", "Citadel of Flame P1" and so on. It' also completely unfair to talk about the "audience" some content attracts, when we all know things like Auric Basin, Silverwastes, Istan have been way more popular when they had inflated rewards. If players play "what they enjoy" the most, how come AB had 25 open instances when it was inflated and now it has 1 or at max 2?

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@"zealex.9410" said:I say introduce a baseline easy mode simply to get more buck from the work already put into raids (the va, music, enemy models, etc) by reusing whats there.

That wouldn't lead to more Raids, only waste resources. We already have content which is easy (Strikes) and content that has multiple tiers (Fractals), and their release cadence is absolutely terrible, so the absence of tiers or an easy difficulty isn't the reason we don't get more Raids. Unless Strike Missions get more releases first I don't expect Fractals to do so. And unless Fractals get more stable releases, Raids won't increase either. That's my "logical path" to a stable release cadence.

Btw have you posted any strike statistics yet?

No. But let's take a look, as always I'll use episode start/end percentages (to illustrate the amount of total activity) with the percentages of strike missions.Bound by Blood: 43% / 36% / 27% (Shiverpeak Pass)Whisper in the Dark: 39% / 36% / 23% (Voice and Claw)Shadow in the Ice: 34% / 32% / 18% (Whisper of Jormag) / 19% (Fraenir of Jormag ) 7 % (Boneskinner )Forging Steel: 30% / 29%No Quarter: 32% / 25% / 1% (Cold War**)Jormag Rising: 25% / 22%

*This is the achievement to kill the boss without being downed or defeated, because the regular one from Whisper in the Dark is not available on gw2efficiency** This is the achievement to kill the boss 50 times, because there is nothing else to track about this Strike Mission, actual one-kills should be much higher

It's unfortunate that we don't have any results for Fraenir and Boneskinner without their special achievements, and no single-kill achievement for Cold War.

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@"Krzysztof.5973" said:Can you give me an example of raid mechanic that cannot be figured out within 1-2 wipes?

You don't need to go to Raids to see that this community doesn't want to learn any mechanic. Visit Auric Basin during the meta and watch as South and West get 5 players each, North gets 10, and East gets 300. Why? Because East takes no brain power to figure out. Meanwhile, North needs bit more effort and South/West are for "intelligent" players, so they barely get anyone to play there.

Same thing with Chak Gerent, Nuhoch lane is barely filled, Ogre lane is next, Rata Novus gets loads of players, but always the majority of the players go to SCAR, because it's just pew pew DPS and don't care about anything. And I remember when Verdant Brink meta was actually being finished, 200 players on the Matriarch, 20 on the Frogs, 10 on Patriarch/Mordrem and barely 2-3 people trying Axemaster. The good old times. This is common everywhere in the game, go to fight the revamped Shatterer, and while 5-6 players are trying to break the crystals and the break bar, the majority is next to the right leg just pew pewing.

And the best part is when players that aren't contributing to a fight while being semi-afk, then complain if the event fails. Classic Guild Wars 2!

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