Suggestion for the Solid Ocean Fractal

[Kam.4092]

This is undeniably the most boring Fractal encounter, but the actual boss in the distance looks so awesome. It's a big tentacle monster, but it's stuck in a jade wall.

My suggestion is to add a mechanic, where at 25% to 20% have the boss break out of the jade, shattering the jade wall everywhere. This would start a new encounter with the beam mechanic still with the shards, but would be a DPS race, since you'd have a limited amount of Shards most likely. The boss doesn't need to be too hard, but I think this would make the encounter way more interesting.

Anyone think this would be fun?

[AnthonyPalomo.8753]

That sounds expensive to implement. Why not just appreciate a throwback to the Jade Sea? If they want to make it more difficult they could always add 2-3 more death beams at the same time that aren't one-shots (if you get hit) or speed up the beam/enemy spawn rate.

[Kam.4092]

@AnthonyPalomo.8753 said:That sounds expensive to implement. Why not just appreciate a throwback to the Jade Sea? If they want to make it more difficult they could always add 2-3 more death beams at the same time that aren't one-shots (if you get hit) or speed up the beam/enemy spawn rate.

They've redone other Fractal's final encounters. I don't see it being an issue implementing.

[Ok I Did It.2854]

Did a dev not say recently they where looking at the Solid Ocean fractal and plan on making changes in the future,

I hope they also look at the underwater one, as that mechanic of swimming past all enemies needs to be changed.

[Justine.6351]

≥75% 1 beam<75% 2 beams<50% 3 beams<25% 4 beamsDeath Blow 5 beams

[Benjamin Arnold.3457]

@Kam.4092 said:This is undeniably the most boring Fractal encounter, but the actual boss in the distance looks so awesome. It's a big tentacle monster, but it's stuck in a jade wall.

My suggestion is to add a mechanic, where at 25% to 20% have the boss break out of the jade, shattering the jade wall everywhere. This would start a new encounter with the beam mechanic still with the shards, but would be a DPS race, since you'd have a limited amount of Shards most likely. The boss doesn't need to be too hard, but I think this would make the encounter way more interesting.

Anyone think this would be fun?

Yeah this fractal is really boring if you have reasonable DPS. Any eventual rework would be larger than just slight mechanical changes.

[wtfkirk.6549]

I think it would be alot better if it just had an actual burn phase were we can physically attack the boss, maybe knock his fat face to the ground after using shards to break a break bar?

[TexZero.7910]

When you guys do a rework, can you please draw more from the Jade Sea missions in GW1. I'd say perhaps re-introduce a mechanic similar to the Spear of Archemorus but that's destroyed, however if the fractal is a snapshot in time it might be possible to recreate it.

Also, i could be wrong but if that's supposed to be Zhu Hanuku then perhaps make him more dynamic taking some inspiration from the D&D Beholder as an idea since Zhu was basically a walking mythical creature of destruction. You could go the route of each tentacle of this kraken containing elements/facets of each class from guildwars past to current.

[crosknight.3041]

personally i dont mind the boss to much, it's getting to the boss i dont like.though i can agree there is to much downtime during the actual boss fight

[Azoqu.8917]

As much as updating Solid Ocean to make it more interesting would be awesome, if it takes too much time that a new fractal could have basically been made, I say don't bother.

[thrag.9740]

I don't need every fractal to be challenging or difficult. I think they should fix the bug where tentacles stop spawning, and then move on for the time being. I would rather Anet continue to focus on new fractals.

[OriOri.8724]

Its less of a matter of making it difficult and more of making it not boring.

[Teraphas.6210]

My random thoughts on more fun.

Give the tentacles the hydra/wurmhead tech. Remove the spawn crystals on death. Once severed they persist but you need to can attack them, doing so makes them thrash. Thrashing is an aoe of damage but also can spawn the crystals. One caveat is the aoe can affect other severed tentacles making them thrash as well.

Thus as the fight progresses the arena gets more dangerous. Why you want to sever tentacles? Doing so prompts the eye beam attack to let you charge crystals.

The jade maw is also given several places for it to emerge from.Instead of lobbing the charged crystals at jade maw. You instead use them to blast the openings to seal the openings.

Once all the openings are sealed the jade maw erupts in the center of the arena (the tentacles finally despawn) exposing a weak spot on its back. The players must spread out to attack as successful attacks give the Maw annoyance charges. At a certain threshold the Maw whirls on its attacker. Meaning the players need to juggle its attention in order to kill it. Leave any player in the Maw' s sights too long and they may not survive.Thus a switching from offensive to defensive would be required of the players and back again would be required during the final phase.

To me that would be more fun.

[zealex.9410]

@Benjamin Arnold.3457 said:

@Kam.4092 said:This is undeniably the most boring Fractal encounter, but the actual boss in the distance looks so awesome. It's a big tentacle monster, but it's stuck in a jade wall.

My suggestion is to add a mechanic, where at 25% to 20% have the boss break out of the jade, shattering the jade wall everywhere. This would start a new encounter with the beam mechanic still with the shards, but would be a DPS race, since you'd have a limited amount of Shards most likely. The boss doesn't need to be too hard, but I think this would make the encounter way more interesting.

Anyone think this would be fun?

Yeah this fractal is really boring if you have reasonable DPS. Any eventual rework would be larger than just slight mechanical changes.

Do you think there could also be the adition of another boss in there or making an event or 2 leading to the final boss? The jade see assets are really cool and its sad we skip them all.

[zealex.9410]

@Azoqu.8917 said:As much as updating Solid Ocean to make it more interesting would be awesome, if it takes too much time that a new fractal could have basically been made, I say don't bother.

Id say expand the team and dish out both. Argueably fractals are runned by the majority of pve players so why not get abit more attention?

[zealex.9410]

@thrag.9740 said:I don't need every fractal to be challenging or difficult. I think they should fix the bug where tentacles stop spawning, and then move on for the time being. I would rather Anet continue to focus on new fractals.

I've never encoutered this bug.

[Stalkingwolf.6035]

i don't get it how you can defeat the boss in 5min. Because he does nothing and you can only attack him after his beam.And yes that thing is boring as hell

[DakotaCoty.5721]

@Benjamin Arnold.3457 said:

@Kam.4092 said:This is undeniably the most boring Fractal encounter, but the actual boss in the distance looks so awesome. It's a big tentacle monster, but it's stuck in a jade wall.

My suggestion is to add a mechanic, where at 25% to 20% have the boss break out of the jade, shattering the jade wall everywhere. This would start a new encounter with the beam mechanic still with the shards, but would be a DPS race, since you'd have a limited amount of Shards most likely. The boss doesn't need to be too hard, but I think this would make the encounter way more interesting.

Anyone think this would be fun?

Yeah this fractal is really boring if you have reasonable DPS. Any eventual rework would be larger than just slight mechanical changes.

Is this a hint that it will be reworked at some point?

[zealex.9410]

@DakotaCoty.5721 said:

@Benjamin Arnold.3457 said:

@Kam.4092 said:This is undeniably the most boring Fractal encounter, but the actual boss in the distance looks so awesome. It's a big tentacle monster, but it's stuck in a jade wall.

My suggestion is to add a mechanic, where at 25% to 20% have the boss break out of the jade, shattering the jade wall everywhere. This would start a new encounter with the beam mechanic still with the shards, but would be a DPS race, since you'd have a limited amount of Shards most likely. The boss doesn't need to be too hard, but I think this would make the encounter way more interesting.

Anyone think this would be fun?

Yeah this fractal is really boring if you have reasonable DPS. Any eventual rework would be larger than just slight mechanical changes.

Is this a hint that it will be reworked at some point?

In the old forums ben said he want to rewark it as well but shattered hard the full attention. Id assume if the new fractal isnt the 100% goal of the team that yes the solid ocean fractal could be updates in the meantime.

[Hock.6740]

most boring fractal - cannon bombardment in Mai Trin

[Benjamin Arnold.3457]

@thrag.9740 said:I don't need every fractal to be challenging or difficult. I think they should fix the bug where tentacles stop spawning, and then move on for the time being. I would rather Anet continue to focus on new fractals.

Reworks are what we do when we have extra time after building a new fractal. We want to ship a new fractal every two living world episodes, and because our team has been getting more efficient and better with our scoping, it is likely we will have more time for reworks in the future. And don't worry, not every rework is going to be like the swampland one in that it makes it more difficult. The intent of reworks is to make a fractal more replayable by removing the bad parts and adding more good parts.

[Randulf.7614]

@Benjamin Arnold.3457 said:

@thrag.9740 said:I don't need every fractal to be challenging or difficult. I think they should fix the bug where tentacles stop spawning, and then move on for the time being. I would rather Anet continue to focus on new fractals.

Reworks are what we do when we have extra time after building a new fractal. We want to ship a new fractal every two living world episodes, and because our team has been getting more efficient and better with our scoping, it is likely we will have more time for reworks in the future. And don't worry, not every rework is going to be like the swampland one in that it makes it more difficult. The intent of reworks is to make a fractal more replayable by removing the bad parts and adding more good parts.

That's encouraging to hear, although I'm surprised to hear Swampland is perceived to be harder. Sure Bloomhunger is more challenging, but I find the swamp/orb bit sooo much easier now. Our Guild (when it was active) refused to do it because some where unable to get past the traps/race against time. This was an exceptional remake from my point of view (which is t1/t2).

[OriOri.8724]

@Benjamin Arnold.3457 said:

@thrag.9740 said:I don't need every fractal to be challenging or difficult. I think they should fix the bug where tentacles stop spawning, and then move on for the time being. I would rather Anet continue to focus on new fractals.

Reworks are what we do when we have extra time after building a new fractal. We want to ship a new fractal every two living world episodes, and because our team has been getting more efficient and better with our scoping, it is likely we will have more time for reworks in the future. And don't worry, not every rework is going to be like the swampland one in that it makes it more difficult. The intent of reworks is to make a fractal more replayable by removing the bad parts and adding more good parts.

Good to know your timeline :) How will this work with the expansion though? Are you counting it as a "LW episode" for the purpose of the new fractal release cadence?

[Benjamin Arnold.3457]

@OriOri.8724 said:

@Benjamin Arnold.3457 said:

@thrag.9740 said:I don't need every fractal to be challenging or difficult. I think they should fix the bug where tentacles stop spawning, and then move on for the time being. I would rather Anet continue to focus on new fractals.

Reworks are what we do when we have extra time after building a new fractal. We want to ship a new fractal every two living world episodes, and because our team has been getting more efficient and better with our scoping, it is likely we will have more time for reworks in the future. And don't worry, not every rework is going to be like the swampland one in that it makes it more difficult. The intent of reworks is to make a fractal more replayable by removing the bad parts and adding more good parts.

Good to know your timeline :) How will this work with the expansion though? Are you counting it as a "LW episode" for the purpose of the new fractal release cadence?

Yes, expansion counts as an episode.

[Lillium.6481]

@Kam.4092 said:This is undeniably the most boring Fractal encounter -...Anyone think this would be fun?

I strongly disagree, actually. This is one of my favorite fractals, and I strongly enjoy the more simplistic fractals over some of the crazy (especially the long) fractals. This is not about faster rewards, this is about repetition making longer fractals unbearable when you've done them 20-50-100-more times. Keep the longer and more complex encounters to raids, that's what those are for, or at least only implement super crazy on CM.

So no, I do not think this idea would be fun at all.