The newest WoW addon is being highly praised for something I'd also love to encounter in GW2s next expansion ...

[Vetkin.6041]

... the lack of enemies.

With over 1.6k upvotes and several awards, this post in the WoW subreddit was highly praised:

I love how friendly the world feels now, in previous expansions the world was so extremely unfriendly. Every road, every tower every meadow had enemies in it. Now we have packs of neutral mobs almost everywhere keeping the world full but friendly. You can land in most places and not die if you go away for a few minutes.

It's such a nice change of pace and lets you appreciate the game a little more

In my opinion, GW2s expansions have a similar problem and espeically EoD had so, so many enemies that made discovering the new continent tiresome and unneccessarily hard (excluding New Kaineng since there was barely anything to discover despite it's size).

Im surely a bit biased to a certain degree since I've been roleplaying for 6+ years now in this game, but I'm also fairly certain that many of you would agree when I say that the next expansion shouldn't always be cluttered with enemies so that you can't catch a break while exploring - same goes for events that disrupt a peaceful point of interest: They're often exciting but having an event at every cool point of interest that always throws waves of enemies at you is very annoying.

On that note: I really hope we get way more accessible buildings in the next expansion. EoD had some really awesome points of interest like the Kaineng archives, kaineng teahouse and - of course - our favorite: Club Canach. But unfortunately, most of these places are plagued with fighting events.

What are your thoughts on this topic?

[yoni.7015]

I play this game to fight enemies and not to enjoy the landscape. The mob density in Guild Wars 2 is fine. 

[Bast.7253]

I think EOD’s problem is that you have places like Echovald with mobs littered to give the illusion of activity, Jade Sea map that just has random mobs for cookie cutter events or to look active, or Kaening that’s just barren except cookie cutter events. 
 

heart of thorns had high mob density but it made sense because it’s the jungle and meant to be pretty treacherous. 
 

bigger issue with this expac is the maps just aren’t great quality or design. Even the aesthetics aren’t as polished.

 

I don’t think mob density is an issue gamewide though and most people will be on skyscale anyway.

[Sobx.1758]

Quote

You can land in most places and not die if you go away for a few minutes.

Basically "the game is so nice because I can now randomly afk wherever for no reason". 

It's funny because it doesn't praise playing the game, it praises not playing the game, at this point just don't launch it and go afk 🙃

Edited December 8, 2022 by Sobx.1758

[Ashen.2907]

I wouldnt mind portions of zones being friendly or pacified, some such do exist actually, but I would be bored if this were more generally applied to maps.

[Randulf.7614]

It’s less mob density, more mob placement.

Auric does it very well. It has wandering dinosaurs or ones lurking round lakes and paths are relatively clear unless pocket raptors are nearby or an event is on. The jungle feels like it has creatures living in it. Echovald though is a bit like Tangled Depths in that it just dumps mobs in areas which lack them or are on a route. Consequently Echovald often feels a chore and combined with being a map which I personally found dull and devoid of content, it’s just annoying.

Bjora Marches is a recent map that also does mob placement well - there are very few places which are dangerous just for the sake of it, rather than it being necessary.

I don’t think removing mobs is the answer, it’s just ensuring the right mobs in the right place. GW2 generally isn’t too bad in its mob placement, but it got wrong at times in both EoD and PoF 

[Astralporing.1957]

2 hours ago, yoni.7015 said:

I play this game to fight enemies and not to enjoy the landscape.

Why not both? I mean, why even care about how good the game looks, if noone were to be interested in enjoying that part of it anyway?

Edited December 8, 2022 by Astralporing.1957

[vesica tempestas.1563]

15 minutes ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

Why not both? I mean, why even care about how good the game looks, if noone were to be interested in enjoying that part of it anyway?

 

if no-one cared about how the game looked then every game would have grey flat backgrounds 🙂

[vicky.9751]

There are cities and safe zones all over the world map for people to role-play. There is no reason to nuke the open world of enemy life. This is a game after all.

Edited December 8, 2022 by vicky.9751

[Astralporing.1957]

26 minutes ago, vesica tempestas.1563 said:

 

if no-one cared about how the game looked then every game would have grey flat backgrounds 🙂

Precisely.

[Peter.3901]

I want to fight vs 5000 enemies at once, i want war, waaaaaaaar.

[McWelp.1723]

7 hours ago, yoni.7015 said:

I play this game to fight enemies and not to enjoy the landscape. The mob density in Guild Wars 2 is fine. 

Its sometimes bit excessive. Especially near waypoints, etc.

 

Sure, dying does not mean anything in this game, but it (EDIT: constant barrage from monsters, not dying) sometimes gets bit tiresome. Want to stop and chat a bit and theres always some random mob biting you in the kitten. Luckily theres skyscale so most of the time you can hover above them and get some quiet time.

Edited December 9, 2022 by McWelp.1723

[Cronospere.8143]

Grothmar valley. I think it can be praised because it is one of the maps with the most side activities which not always include fighting enemy mobs, but also brawling, hide and seek, cooking, working (tavern), races, concert. 

The most important thing about this map was that it had a complete different vibe. 

[Sobx.1758]

35 minutes ago, McWelp.1723 said:

Want to stop and chat a bit and theres always some random mob biting you in the kitten.

On the other hand there's almost always a nearby place that's perfectly safe, so just... don't randomly afk, pretty easy 😄

[Cuks.8241]

A good mix of both. Peace full areas where you are more or less safe and enemy territory where you fear for your life.

Every part of the forest doesn't need to be filled with hostile animals and all the bears and spiders, wolf and so on dont need to be suicidally aggressive . 

 

[Funky.4861]

Dying to a random mob if you're afk is perfectly acceptable; Tyria is mostly hostile once out of the starter zones. There are 'safe' spaces pretty much everywhere; if you have a skyscale just go up to max height away from ranged enemies or use a guild hall or mistlock sanctuary (they preserve your previous location when you leave them).

[Wolfshade.9251]

Kaineng already has a similar feature; rival gangs appear as yellow until you attack them. With the exception of malfunctioning mechs or event mobs, those are red.

I wonder if this is part of the reason why Kaineng feels so empty. Personally, I like having the option to sightsee the city (mostly) in peace.

[Silent.6137]

17 minutes ago, Funky.4861 said:

use a guild hall or mistlock sanctuary (they preserve your previous location when you leave them).

Yep, if you must afk without logging out, just go to the Guildhall or one of the lounges (Mistlock, 1K Sea or Armistice) that offers ability to return to your previous location or the PvP lobby or WvW starting zones.

Edited December 8, 2022 by Silent.6137

[Astralporing.1957]

1 hour ago, Sobx.1758 said:

On the other hand there's almost always a nearby place that's perfectly safe

If only. Sometimes that "nearby" place is half a map away...

[Sobx.1758]

22 minutes ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

If only. Sometimes that "nearby" place is half a map away...

Not really.

[Drok Kindleshot.1496]

One reason why i will never step foot in Istan unless I have to.

[Solvar.7953]

The case against mobs of monsters is that killing them gives you little (maybe a few common or uncommon unid items and exp that you don't need at some point).  On most maps I'm moving around on, I avoid mobs simply for this reason.

And as others have said, on a lot of maps, there are just piles of monsters without any purpose other than to have a pile of monsters.

I don't think killing the random mobs is really a big point of the game - I mean you can do so, but I think the bigger focus is events, champions, bounties, etc.

 

[McWelp.1723]

4 hours ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Not really.

Looks like we are not playing the same game. Without flying mount, sometimes finding a safe spot is a chore and its just easier to teleport away (and probably get attacked by whatever event happens to be on top of the waypoint you went to...)

[Jukhy.2431]

29 minutes ago, McWelp.1723 said:

Looks like we are not playing the same game. Without flying mount, sometimes finding a safe spot is a chore and its just easier to teleport away (and probably get attacked by whatever event happens to be on top of the waypoint you went to...)

The guild hall is two clicks away with a return to the location you ported in from. If you have Armistice / Mistlock /Thousand Seas pass or home portal stone then that safe spot (with the return) can be only one click away.

[McWelp.1723]

3 hours ago, Jukhy.2431 said:

The guild hall is two clicks away with a return to the location you ported in from. If you have Armistice / Mistlock /Thousand Seas pass or home portal stone then that safe spot (with the return) can be only one click away.

Yes, i know. I have lily of elon teleport. Its still a minor annoyance sometimes (EDIT: escaping is easy, but eats more time to get back where you were before you teleported if you want to continue whatever you were doing..).

Edited December 9, 2022 by McWelp.1723