Dragon's End Meta - I Love It

[Lukian Darkblade.8012]

Hello everyone,

 

My name is Lukian and I have been commanding attempts in Dragon's End since day 2 of EoD. I lead the Guild Requiem and together we have 4 confirmed take downs on the final boss. One of which with over 5 minutes left on the timer. (I only mention because I am very proud of this accomplishment but don't mean to brag.)

 

I love Guild Wars 2 so I definitely have a heavy opinion on the game and what is released. Even with that love, I never really post onto the forums, but, after reading through a lot of the topics and seeing the negativity on this meta event (even in the topics of people trying to praise the event) I wanted to share my own thoughts on everything.

 

So far I would place this meta at the top of my list, being my now favorite meta in the game. That being said, I can definitely see myself getting worn out quickly as it takes quite some time to complete and right now, you may not always get the kill. All that said, I am thoroughly enjoying such challenging content. A meta event like this has brought many people throughout the community together to create strategies on how to get kills easier and/or make things easier for everyone. I much rather being able to do this, than just be able to run through the meta with my eyes closed. The feeling of glory and accomplishment every time we are able to land the kill is just amazing.

 

Even with the love for this event, I know that somewhere in the future it will be nerfed to make things easier for everyone. I'm hoping that sharing my thoughts will help to show the ArenaNet that there are many of us in this great community that love this type of content. I really hope to see more of these types of meta chains in the future for sure.

 

My only ask to everyone out there that is upset due to its difficulty is hold out for now. Try joining in a group that is strategizing and/or working their hardest to get the kill. Eventually this meta will get the nerf you want but for now please let us enjoy the challenge we have in front of us. Let's all enjoy the game together!

 

Thank you ArenaNet for such an amazing journey through Guild Wars 1 up till now. This game and community will always be such a huge part of my life.

[KurokouNekoki.7891]

1 minute ago, Lukian Darkblade.8012 said:

Hello everyone,

 

My name is Lukian and I have been commanding attempts in Dragon's End since day 2 of EoD. I lead the Guild Requiem and together we have 4 confirmed take downs on the final boss. One of which with over 5 minutes left on the timer. (I only mention because I am very proud of this accomplishment but don't mean to brag.)

 

I love Guild Wars 2 so I definitely have a heavy opinion on the game and what is released. Even with that love, I never really post onto the forums, but, after reading through a lot of the topics and seeing the negativity on this meta event (even in the topics of people trying to praise the event) I wanted to share my own thoughts on everything.

 

So far I would place this meta at the top of my list, being my now favorite meta in the game. That being said, I can definitely see myself getting worn out quickly as it takes quite some time to complete and right now, you may not always get the kill. All that said, I am thoroughly enjoying such challenging content. A meta event like this has brought many people throughout the community together to create strategies on how to get kills easier and/or make things easier for everyone. I much rather being able to do this, than just be able to run through the meta with my eyes closed. The feeling of glory and accomplishment every time we are able to land the kill is just amazing.

 

Even with the love for this event, I know that somewhere in the future it will be nerfed to make things easier for everyone. I'm hoping that sharing my thoughts will help to show the ArenaNet that there are many of us in this great community that love this type of content. I really hope to see more of these types of meta chains in the future for sure.

 

My only ask to everyone out there that is upset due to its difficulty is hold out for now. Try joining in a group that is strategizing and/or working their hardest to get the kill. Eventually this meta will get the nerf you want but for now please let us enjoy the challenge we have in front of us. Let's all enjoy the game together!

 

Thank you ArenaNet for such an amazing journey through Guild Wars 1 up till now. This game and community will always be such a huge part of my life.

What is this? A School Expose?

Four kills, grats on them, but that also bragging when you know the state of things.

Also I think we should use the term "Rebalanced" instead of "Nerf" because honestly the challenge shouldn't be reduced because of simple matters, but it should be revised because of the conditions and the situation the playerbase is facing right now.
We are also upset, because we ARE planning hour before the final stretch and what it takes is 1 second of someone ill intented or not to ruin all that planning, it is not a challenge it is a sabottage.

The Designer of the content may had a good idea in theory, on paper it passes quite differently.
The maps are gorgeous but yes most of the META has visual clutter, the rainfall and winds effects are just too strong (am not sure you can reduce it via the graphical settings or not, haven't tested that, admitedly).

But yeah, the content has potential, but the source problem (which isn't the content) is enough to destroy the efforts of the players who are trying and the devs who have created it.

[Alcatraznc.3869]

I like difficulty. What I dont like is a mecanic that stall the fight for 20% of its duration. Yes 4 min may not seems much at first glance but in a 20min fight, it means 20% of the fight can be wasted.  And this mecanic is a free griefing tool for trolls (or people who got their turtle and doesnt want other to get them). New player sees green circle and think "I must go there" and they end up being lost not knowing what is happening nor what they have to do while the chat is yelling at them for throwing. Wisp mecanic needs to be reworked or removed. 

 

And then we have to talk about the boss where you constantly have to switch between head and tail. The tail part is mandatory if you want to deal damage to the boss but for some reason the boss's tail is not considered as a part of its body since damaging it has no effect on the boss HP. This is completely dumb and is also another way to waste time and stall the fight. Damaging the tail should reduce the boss HP. 

 

I dont know if we really need the part where we have to kill 2 legendary and then 3 legendary at the same time but whatever, more challenge I suppose.  Oh and of course all of that happens while the boss has a lot of large AOE attack that straight up down / one shot you while you have a lot of veterant - elite trash mob roaming around the arena.

 

In summary we have :

-A boss with AOE that can one shot you

-Swarms of Vet-Elite monster

-A tail that's only purpose is to stall the fight by making you move back and forth AND isnt considered as a part of the boss

-A mechanic that straight up reduces 20% of the your fight time if 1 player fail or decides to troll

-Coordonated leg to kill

-No rooms for mistakes or troll.

All of that in 20 min...and of course this is without counting the 1 hour you spent preparing the map and the other hour spent progressing through the meta event. 

 

As much as I like this event, Anet should REALLY consider reworking or removing the wisp part, and add more time to the fight. As of right now, each DE attempts becomes more and more toxic and new player who up until now dont face much trouble, are suddenly faced with a DPS check, may find themself victim of flaming by accidentally stepping in a green circle and will never learn the mecanic because no group will allow new player to throw under the bus 2 hours of work in a 20min fight.

 

Oh yeah also worth mentioning, this is the first meta event in an OW where I see people in LFG refusing to accept certain class/certain build. A freaking OPEN WORLD EVENT. At this point you may as well turn the event into a raid.

[Erise.5614]

33 minutes ago, Alcatraznc.3869 said:

I like difficulty. What I dont like is a mecanic that stall the fight for 20% of its duration. Yes 4 min may not seems much at first glance but in a 20min fight, it means 20% of the fight can be wasted.  And this mecanic is a free griefing tool for trolls (or people who got their turtle and doesnt want other to get them). New player sees green circle and think "I must go there" and they end up being lost not knowing what is happening nor what they have to do while the chat is yelling at them for throwing. Wisp mecanic needs to be reworked or removed. 

 

And then we have to talk about the boss where you constantly have to switch between head and tail. The tail part is mandatory if you want to deal damage to the boss but for some reason the boss's tail is not considered as a part of its body since damaging it has no effect on the boss HP. This is completely dumb and is also another way to waste time and stall the fight. Damaging the tail should reduce the boss HP. 

 

As much as I like this event, Anet should REALLY consider reworking or removing the wisp part, and add more time to the fight. As of right now, each DE attempts becomes more and more toxic and new player who up until now dont face much trouble, are suddenly faced with a DPS check, may find themself victim of flaming by accidentally stepping in a green circle and will never learn the mecanic because no group will allow new player to throw under the bus 2 hours of work in a 20min fight.

 

Oh yeah also worth mentioning, this is the first meta event in an OW where I see people in LFG refusing to accept certain class/certain build. A freaking OPEN WORLD EVENT. At this point you may as well turn the event into a raid.

 

The meta is drastically too difficult but I wanna point out a "funny" observation.

People keep saying greens are a tool for trolling and griefing. But really, they aren't. It truly seems to me ANet fully intended for every fight to include 3-4 minutes of wisps.

The meta is so horribly imbalanced that it appears to many players as if it was mandatory to exploit the phase and gain 10%-20% additional time to have any chance at all. Without the skip it is seen as so impossible as to not even be worth considering.

Which just shows further how utterly ridiculous the fight is. 

Edited March 4, 2022 by Erise.5614

[KurokouNekoki.7891]

17 minutes ago, Erise.5614 said:

 

The meta is drastically too difficult but I wanna point out a "funny" observation.

People keep saying greens are a tool for trolling and griefing. But really, they aren't. It truly seems to me ANet fully intended for every fight to include 3-4 minutes of wisps.

The meta is so horribly imbalanced that it appears to many players as if it was mandatory to exploit the phase and gain 10%-20% additional time to have any chance at all. Without the skip it is seen as so impossible as to not even be worth considering.

Which just shows further how utterly ridiculous the fight is. 

I think the proper formulation would be, that it is a tool for trolling by those "who doesn't want to collaborate".
And for those "who cannot read or are not at this step of performance yet", as an unfortunate and unvoluntary risk that honestly we cannot blame them of trying to learn but which still is punishing for everyone else that would get the mechanic right.

I believe that we have all understood the theory of the fight mechanics, but the variable that is super open free for a sabottage or a punishing fail, makes it a bit hard to swallow, considering the situation that it is an Open Map World which has all those factors as a more chance than none potential.

Any others METAs (as far as I know them) don't require a 100% Participation Rate; this one though does (if not 99.99%), yes it is a sort of big finale for the story arc, but it is probably too much asking to have a full map (not just a 10-man raid; or 5-man fractal) level of synchronism.

[Friday.7864]

Good for you.

I despise it, after getting my kill I don't even want to be in that map anymore.

[Erise.5614]

48 minutes ago, KurokouNekoki.7891 said:

I think the proper formulation would be, that it is a tool for trolling by those "who doesn't want to collaborate".
And for those "who cannot read or are not at this step of performance yet", as an unfortunate and unvoluntary risk that honestly we cannot blame them of trying to learn but which still is punishing for everyone else that would get the mechanic right.

I believe that we have all understood the theory of the fight mechanics, but the variable that is super open free for a sabottage or a punishing fail, makes it a bit hard to swallow, considering the situation that it is an Open Map World which has all those factors as a more chance than none potential.

Any others METAs (as far as I know them) don't require a 100% Participation Rate; this one though does (if not 99.99%), yes it is a sort of big finale for the story arc, but it is probably too much asking to have a full map (not just a 10-man raid; or 5-man fractal) level of synchronism.

But again. You're assuming that the green phase must be skipped for a successful meta. Everything about the design suggests to me that it is not intended to finish in less than 4 minutes. Maybe by a few seconds but not as a necessity. 

Trolling is only possible if you assume skipping wisps is a mandatory mechanic. 

And it really feels to me like it is not designed to be skipped. But rather that the rest of the fight is so horribly imbalanced that skipping feels mandatory. 

[Joraan Adenard.2061]

1 hour ago, Erise.5614 said:

But again. You're assuming that the green phase must be skipped for a successful meta. Everything about the design suggests to me that it is not intended to finish in less than 4 minutes. Maybe by a few seconds but not as a necessity. 

Trolling is only possible if you assume skipping wisps is a mandatory mechanic. 

And it really feels to me like it is not designed to be skipped. But rather that the rest of the fight is so horribly imbalanced that skipping feels mandatory. 

 

I think the intention behind that mechanism is not to punish failure with 4 minutes less on the clock, but rather to reward success with additional time on the clock, so I agree with you on that.

 

However, even if they manage to rebalance the rest of the fight to make it possible, the wisp mechanic just feels weird and unwelcome. Why, during an epic fight, would I want a phase where people that stay in the arena have to WAIT a full 2 min killing trash mobs for no reason, without any purpose ? You shouldnt have wait phases like that in such a fight. At least give us something MEANINGFUL to do while the wisps make their way to the top !

[kharmin.7683]

Four confirmed take downs.  How many fails?

[KurokouNekoki.7891]

2 hours ago, Erise.5614 said:

Trolling is only possible if you assume skipping wisps is a mandatory mechanic. 

And it really feels to me like it is not designed to be skipped. But rather that the rest of the fight is so horribly imbalanced that skipping feels mandatory. 

Slightly incorrect as trolling is still likely to happen even if people do the mechanic, as it only need one griefer to be a wisp to destroy the run (as normal player with the good of all in mind would try to jump while the troller will just make sure we don't get the boon and also lose time).
With the second Green Phase with even more chances of a "potential" troll being a target as the number of zones are tripled.

Again for records here I have done 28 attempts in the last 4 ish days.
I would say only 4 or 5 of them were Green Skipped hoped (they were all griefed). At least 2/3rd of the remaining were griefed. And the last 1/3rd remaining was trials (first timers, and my own first time).

[Liewec.2896]

6 hours ago, Lukian Darkblade.8012 said:

My only ask to everyone out there that is upset due to its difficulty is hold out for now.

but thats the thing, Anet hid the siege turtle mount behind this event, people don't want to hold out, we want our turtles dammit!

but to earn our turtles we need to do this silly meta which requires turtles...its catch 22.

if this was just a meta event then there wouldn't be so much rage.

but because it is an annoying roadblock preventing us from getting our turtles we're all getting rather annoyed.

the game deciding to split everyone into a million separate instances isn't helping...

[ugrakarma.9416]

this meta will end like marionnete if they don't adjust, some "challenge hunters" will keep trying on first months, then, will be dead and empty.

[Erise.5614]

43 minutes ago, KurokouNekoki.7891 said:

Slightly incorrect as trolling is still likely to happen even if people do the mechanic, as it only need one griefer to be a wisp to destroy the run (as normal player with the good of all in mind would try to jump while the troller will just make sure we don't get the boon and also lose time).
With the second Green Phase with even more chances of a "potential" troll being a target as the number of zones are tripled.

Again for records here I have done 28 attempts in the last 4 ish days.
I would say only 4 or 5 of them were Green Skipped hoped (they were all griefed). At least 2/3rd of the remaining were griefed. And the last 1/3rd remaining was trials (first timers, and my own first time).

But that ought to be the intended way to do it. Everything in this mechanic suggests it's designed to consume 4 minutes.

The way everyone downs, how the crystal needs to be destroyed by literal AFK gameplay (aka let monsters fail the event), the design of the circles (green, arrows. Clearly communicating "Stand in here!")

 

The only way this makes sense to me is if ANet expects 4 minutes of wisps and the boss to still succeed. It can only be abused for trolling since the rest of the meta is so ungodly hard. So exploiting the fight for a bit of cheeky extra time is the meta now.

But seriously, that can not possibly have been the intention of ANet. 

Edited March 4, 2022 by Erise.5614

[kharny.3284]

just was offered money to leave the map....yea this is totally working as intended....

[KurokouNekoki.7891]

3 minutes ago, Erise.5614 said:

But that ought to be the intended way to do it. Everything in this mechanic suggests it's designed to consume 4 minutes.

The way everyone downs, how the crystal needs to be destroyed by literal AFK gameplay (aka let monsters fail the event), the design of the circles (green, arrows. Clearly communicating "Stand in here!")

 

The only way this makes sense to me is if ANet expects 4 minutes of wisps and the boss to still succeed. 

*sigh* We do (well at least, I do) get that...
The point is that this same mechanics "can easily be used for ill intentions; and actually is used for that intent".

Edited March 4, 2022 by KurokouNekoki.7891

[Deihnyx.6318]

I got the kill too, and enjoyed it. That said I do acknowledge there's a number of problems.

- If you want a hard meta, you should allow for people to learn without a 1h+ 'wait time' before it
- You should absolutely make sure to take into account that 10-15% will screw it up, and not impact other players on that map
- You should give a consolation prize for failing, like in raids or strikes.|

I am absolutely against removing mechanics, any of the mechanics. But a meta doesn't have to be a nearly 100% success rate. 50% is acceptable, too. It needs some balancing, but after 10 years of playing guild wars it's good to have -some- content that isn't plain face-rolling. I feel like Drakkar got into that sweet spot for some, maybe this one should be like that too, or slightly more demanding.

Also huh, given a couple requirements for the turtle collection you may as well make sure the players completing it know a thing or two about mechanics...

Edited March 4, 2022 by Deihnyx.6318

[Erise.5614]

8 minutes ago, KurokouNekoki.7891 said:

*sigh* We do (well at least I do) get that...
The point is that this same mechanics "can easily be used for ill intentions; and actually is used for that intent".

Ok, fair. But you're just complaining about AFK players then. It should hardly make a difference between standing AFK in town vs AFK as wisp.

Because, again. It appears to be fully intentional for wisps to take 4 minutes. It being 4 minutes is not a mechanic that's broken. The exploits around it are broken, and the event is excessively difficult around this gimmick. 

But it doesn't appear as if one person can break the event beyond what ANet intended. My point is the one and only problem is how ANet designed and balanced the fight. Some people being ill intentioned is normal. It doesn't harm other events. It shouldn't harm open world content. Because there's no option to get rid of them. But they are a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of players. So they don't have an impact.

The issue is the event around it. Not just wisps being used by newbies or trolls. 

Edited March 4, 2022 by Erise.5614

[KurokouNekoki.7891]

9 minutes ago, Erise.5614 said:

Ok, fair. But you're just complaining about AFK players then. It should hardly make a difference between standing AFK in town vs AFK as wisp.

Because, again. It appears to be fully intentional for wisps to take 4 minutes. It being 4 minutes is not a mechanic that's broken. The exploits around it are broken, and the event is excessively difficult around this gimmick. 

But it doesn't appear as if one person can break the event beyond what ANet intended. My point is the one and only problem is how ANet designed and balanced the fight. Some people being ill intentioned is normal. It doesn't harm other events. It shouldn't harm open world content. Because there's no option to get rid of them. But they are a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of players. So they don't have an impact.

The issue is the event around it. Not just wisps being used by newbies or trolls. 

I do agree that it is part of the gimmick...
But the bottom afkers is still an act of sabottaging, when people who are actually active would attempt to jump back up.

I deny any blames on people which this is their first time who TRIES and listen.

But when it is clear as day that their dots is staying down there litterally not moving for the 2 minutes, is being a kind of "jerk" move.

I don't see the Wisp Gimmick as bad or unecessary like most, but just that from the fact it is actually used for bad intentions in most cases (more than first timers)... leaves a sour taste.

The four minutes if it happens happens, but people don't have to be a jerk and force it on others.
---------
I am not attempting to complain about the mechanics itself, just about the trolls that I absolutely cannot respect in any shape or form for that absolute disgraceful display of respect towards others.

Edited March 4, 2022 by KurokouNekoki.7891

[Erise.5614]

3 minutes ago, KurokouNekoki.7891 said:

I do agree that it is part of the gimmick...
But the bottom afkers is still an act of sabottaging, when people who are actually active would attempt to jump back up.

I deny any blames on people which this is their first time who TRIES and listen.

But when it is clear as day that their dots is staying down there litterally not moving for the 2 minutes, is being a kind of "jerk" move.

I don't see the Wisp Gimmick as bad or unecessary like most, but just that from the fact it is actually used for bad intentions in most cases (more than first timers)... leaves a sour taste.

The four minutes if it happens happens, but people don't have to be a jerk and force it on others.

I mean. I've seen it several times that people were confused and didn't know they could jump. I PM'd them trying to explain and got a response after the event. Seen a griefer too but the majority were nice people who didn't know.

And secondly. Again. Why is this worse than just going afk not even being at the event? It makes no real difference.

It prevents executing an exploit. That's all.

4 minutes ought to be considered the default. Not "forced on others". At least if we go by how it is communicated by the game. 

Edited March 4, 2022 by Erise.5614

[Teratus.2859]

3 hours ago, Erise.5614 said:

Trolling is only possible if you assume skipping wisps is a mandatory mechanic. 

And it really feels to me like it is not designed to be skipped. But rather that the rest of the fight is so horribly imbalanced that skipping feels mandatory. 

That's been exactly my opinion on the meta as well.
Anet did say they didn't want people cheesing and skipping mechanics in End of Dragons and I think that applies to the entire game not just the new Strike Missions.

I do agree with complaints about this phase regarding trolls there is definitely room for them to mess around here.
But I think adding a minimum pass requirement for this phase will solve that problem.
Say if 20 players get turned into wisps, as soon as 5-10 of them make it back up, phase completes, fight resumes and people get that essential damage bonus.
Really simple solution imo and the best I can come up with that doesn't involve drastically changing the phase or removing it.

2 hours ago, Joraan Adenard.2061 said:

I think the intention behind that mechanism is not to punish failure with 4 minutes less on the clock, but rather to reward success with additional time on the clock, so I agree with you on that.

In all honesty I think it's designed as both.

Successful completion of this phase rewards time and damage.
Ignoring the phase penalizes time.
 

2 hours ago, Joraan Adenard.2061 said:

However, even if they manage to rebalance the rest of the fight to make it possible, the wisp mechanic just feels weird and unwelcome. Why, during an epic fight, would I want a phase where people that stay in the arena have to WAIT a full 2 min killing trash mobs for no reason, without any purpose ? You shouldnt have wait phases like that in such a fight. At least give us something MEANINGFUL to do while the wisps make their way to the top !

That I can actually agree with as well.
It does feel a bit awkward and takes you out of the fight.. both figuratively and quite literally.

Maybe this should be the point in the fight where players still on the platform should have to deal with the Dragon's tail to reduce it's defensive stacks.
Say every 10% of health they knock off the tail takes a stack of damage reduction away from the boss permanently.

[KurokouNekoki.7891]

9 minutes ago, Erise.5614 said:

I mean. I've seen it several times that people were confused and didn't know they could jump. I PM'd them trying to explain and got a response after the event. Seen a griefer too but the majority were nice people who didn't know.

And secondly. Again. Why is this worse than just going afk not even being at the event? It makes no real difference.

It prevents executing an exploit. That's all.

4 minutes ought to be considered the default. Not "forced on others". At least if we go by how it is communicated by the game. 

And that is fine, the patch was to be expected, but you really should look for an alternatives on how to help the playerbase that are aiming to achieve something to no having to rely on such (yes) "petty" lifelines.

Also I did said that I void the blame on First Timers (but first timers only), by your second time you should have a slightly better grasp.

Purposefully AFKers though are not better than Pure Trolls, if you have to go AFK for a long period and you know you won't be back in time, please leave the map... that is the least of cordial behavior players should do, if they wouldn't be so selfish.
(I mean, sudden AFKing is fine if you don't have the time to mention it (emergency and that sort of things) but there is never a way to know who is real with others online... people can say "oh I need to AFK" and just sit in front of their screen cackling...)

Would there be a barrier protecting that sort of things we wouldn't have to worry about those things. (Nor we would have this discussion right now). But this has been going for a long long time now.

My points is not Even about the 4 minutes (as it is clear for both you and I that this is the intended way), so you can drop that argument now, please...

Edited March 4, 2022 by KurokouNekoki.7891

[Erise.5614]

1 minute ago, KurokouNekoki.7891 said:

And that is fine, the patch was to be expected, but you really should look for an alternatives on how to help the playerbase that are aiming to achieve something to no having to rely on such (yes) "petty" lifelines.

Also I did said that I void the blame on First Timers (but first timers only), by your second time you should have a slightly better grasp.

Purposefully AFKers though are not better than Pure Trolls, if you have to go AFK for a long period and you know you won't be back in time, please leave the map... that is the least of cordial behavior players should do, if they wouldn't be so selfish.
(I mean, sudden AFKing is fine if you don't have the time to mention it (emergency and that sort of things) but there is never a way to know who is real with others online... people can say "oh I need to AFK" and just sit in front of their screen cackling...)

Would there be a barrier protecting that sort of things we wouldn't have to worry about those things. (Nor we would have this discussion right now). But this has been going for a long long time now.

And it's completely normal for open world. After all, it's intentionally designed to be without any barriers at all. 

To casually meet people, group up, do something and split apart. Meta events are already pushing it in terms of design. They are excellent but need to be designed very carefully to not go against this core reality.

There are areas in the game deliberately designed for coordinated group content and with the tools to act against such behavior. Open world ain't that. And neither of these behaviors should have an impact on the outcome so long as a strong majority of people make an honest effort to contribute.

Neither wisps nor AFKers should make a difference. 

Protection against this means forced disconnects upon being AFK, forced disconnects upon doing the wrong thing, getting kicked if you don't do the right thing. And, wow! Look at that! We have a 50 man raid instance. Which honestly could be cool for people who like that sort of content. But it doesn't belong in the open world.

Designing anything even remotely approaching that is a very fundamental failure on ANets part. If not a fundamental misunderstanding of their own game. 

[KurokouNekoki.7891]

11 minutes ago, Erise.5614 said:

And neither of these behaviors should have an impact on the outcome so long as a strong majority of people make an honest effort to contribute.

Neither wisps nor AFKers should make a difference. 

Protection against this means forced disconnects upon being AFK, forced disconnects upon doing the wrong thing, getting kicked if you don't do the right thing. And, wow! Look at that! We have a 50 man raid instance. Which honestly could be cool for people who like that sort of content. But it doesn't belong in the open world.

Unfortunately that "Shouldn't make a difference" actually does make a difference.

The Protection for AFKing is currently 45 minutes, that's basically the biggest chunk of the End META (-10 minutes).
So by that time the attempt can already be scratched off.

So something must be off somewhere.

If it is not from the mechanics, and it is not for the legitimate players...
There is only one other source left, the people that are not participating.

Agree that there is no way to control it in an Open World Environment, but that leads to the solution this event might require, the Instancing.

At the current state the only message the event is giving us is "Draw this event fate" (lottery style) if you don't get an afker, GG you practically are safe. If you get an afker or troll too bad come back in 2 hours.
Just because that 0.01% of person makes the whole difference.

That Too Bad Come back in 2 hours is what will unfortunately kill the motivation to do this Meta.
Instancing the Meta would help alleviate the risk of Griefer as we can kick them for that simple reason, would let afker alone and also Map Completer free to roam to get the points, without being an hindrance for the people that does the Event Chain.

Edited March 4, 2022 by KurokouNekoki.7891

[Erise.5614]

8 minutes ago, KurokouNekoki.7891 said:

Unfortunately that "Shouldn't make a difference" actually does make a difference.

The Protection for AFKing is currently 45 minutes, that's basically the biggest chunk of the End META (-10 minutes).
So by that time the attempt can already be scratched off.

So something must be off somewhere.

If it is not from the mechanics, and it is not for the legitimate players...
There is only one other source left, the people that are not participating.

But that's exactly what I'm saying. The issue is the mechanics.

Blaming it on people not participating is a convenient scapegoat. It's like blaming a countries economics on immigrants. Or your lack of wealth on taxes. Sure, you can probably construe a relation somehow. But that's not where these issues come from. 

If you go in with that as conclusion for "this is the problem". Then any fix you implement will just make the game worse to play and once you're tyrannically punishing everyone not immediately contributing to all meta steps you'll find out that nothing has been solved. The exact same issues still exist. 

A person here or there mustn't make a difference in open world. Events have to accommodate for both inexperienced people and people not contributing.

The solution to this problem is adapting to the general population. Not getting harsher and harsher. 

Edited March 4, 2022 by Erise.5614

[KurokouNekoki.7891]

7 minutes ago, Erise.5614 said:

But that's exactly what I'm saying. The issue is the mechanics.

Blaming it on people not participating is a convenient scapegoat. It's like blaming a countries economics on immigrants. Or your lack of wealth on taxes. Sure, you can probably construe a relation somehow. But that's not where these issues come from. 

If you go in with that as conclusion for "this is the problem". Then any fix you implement will just make the game worse to play and once you're tyrannically punishing everyone not immediately contributing to all meta steps you'll find out that nothing has been solved. The exact same issues still exist. 

A person here or there mustn't make a difference in open world. Events have to accommodate for both inexperienced people and people not contributing.

Well sorry but that's not message that passed until this clarification.

--------------------------
The Blaming at this point is based on multiple researches and deduction based on observations during the event chain.
From the informations of Fully Equipped Team, to First Timers. Processing all that info does lead to the "Scapegoat" ending.
And yes you are right as of right now, this event is purely doomed because there is "NO" fixes that can support the situation.

Open world is not the place for this event, and I think you agree with this.
Yet, outside changing the mechanics and rebalancing the event, as you suggested a few times before, what are YOU suggesting?

My only suggestion at this point is to instance the event chain for a better control and coordination of the participants to assure that everyone is in for sharing the satisfaction of hitting gold at the end with the teammates. You don't have to have the Pristine Crystal Gear or 600 hours of raiding under your belt, as long as you are willing to do your part, listen and pay attention then we should all be good.

DragonStorm is a surprisingly good example where the instancing still leave place to joke around and have fun, while doing the mechanics, but without the absolute nerve in your forehead that if someone flukes all is over.
DragonEnd has been the litteral opposite at the point it is currently standing.

Edited March 4, 2022 by KurokouNekoki.7891