(Annual) Holiday Musical - Bell Choir

[cinek.8914]

I would like to suggest nerfing the achivement so it doesn't require 1000 correctly played notes but something like 250. This minigame is really hard, frustrating and simply not fun, especially for people with slower reaction time. There are too many notes, they go too fast, note keybinds are weird (number 5 skipped?) and without the use of any "supporitve" 3rd party software it will take hours to complete, while other annual achivements from the same achivement section can be completed way faster, in some cases even after 1 run.

[Kiof.5710]

I used to feel the same way until I found out three things...

1 - Adjust your view to look mostly down on the game.

2 - Use your left pinky to ring fingers on 1-4 and your right pinky fingers on 6-9 and tap away.

3 - The biggest game changer was finding out that you had to hit the correct note just after it passed the line.  Previously I had been trying to hit just as it hit the line.  So basically for years I had been misplaying it and would only get credit for what I thought were wrong hits.

 

Try these and see if your opinion and enjoyment change.

[Garrison Storm.3046]

In spite of all of the suggestions, this thread and many others, success with this particular mini-game continues to elude me... and I simply am not interested in investing the time to practice, and I accept that's on me... and is also why I am grateful that I don't have to complete it to get credit for the Annual Traditions... You only need 7/8 for credit, so skip that merry nastiness! As you acknowledge, the others can be completed much quicker...

Best of luck and Happy Holidays!

[Balsa.3951]

the good thing is u do it once and never must go back there

[Ashantara.8731]

22 hours ago, cinek.8914 said:

I would like to suggest nerfing the achivement so it doesn't require 1000 correctly played notes but something like 250. This minigame is really hard, frustrating and simply not fun, especially for people with slower reaction time. There are too many notes, they go too fast, note keybinds are weird (number 5 skipped?) and without the use of any "supporitve" 3rd party software it will take hours to complete, while other annual achivements from the same achivement section can be completed way faster, in some cases even after 1 run.

It's super fun once you get the mechanics: you need to hit the notes after they crossed the white inner circle.

Also, You are getting plenty of points per run, so it's easy to reach the goal.

[Teknomancer.4895]

Your Mad King says, ring bell 4! (maniacal laughter)

Now play Simon to open your reward box!

Did you hear me say "your Mad King says?" No!

I have socks smarter than you.

[SandraSolace.7682]

I will take playing 1000 notes over the JP any day! ( yes, I suck at jumping and the bells but at least the bells are easier then the jumping.)

Play one or two rounds a day and you'll have plenty of time to get to a 1000!

[Atoclone.4810]

i'm torn between smashing my face at the jp till i manage to complete it 5 times, current 0 or the bells currently 1% . anet did such a good job of rejigging the dailys so that i get to play what i find fun but come the traditional time of giving i'm stuck between 2 things i'm no good at, don't enjoy and tbh really don't feel the desire to get any better at

[Ashantara.8731]

On 12/15/2023 at 5:40 PM, Kiof.5710 said:

1 - Adjust your view to look mostly down on the game.

I thought that was clear to everyone. Are there really people not playig it from the look-straight-down perspective? 😄

On 12/15/2023 at 5:40 PM, Kiof.5710 said:

2 - Use your left pinky to ring fingers on 1-4 and your right pinky fingers on 6-9 and tap away.

Did you mean index finger?

You play this like the piano: left hand on 1-4, right hand on 6-9.

[Kiof.5710]

You never know what is new to someone.  🙂

Yes, D'oh! on the fingers.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

i think its just not very friendly to anyone with a ping above about 100ms. my partner from australia tried to do this and couldn't manage to get a single note correctly even after watching a video on  how to do it properly, because it requires developing a mental lag compensation.

 

that's fine for something like a raid boss, but for a temporary holiday-themed minigame, its just a waste of time.

Edited December 18, 2023 by SoftFootpaws.9134

[Garrison Storm.3046]

On 12/16/2023 at 12:47 AM, Balsa.3951 said:

the good thing is u do it once and never must go back there

Well at my current pace (or lack thereof), it would take me waaaaaaaaaaayyyy longer than once!  But I acknowledge that if you are that committed, you can grind your way through by focusing on just a few of the notes...

So out of curiosity, if you are really good at this, how many rounds/songs would it take to hit 1000?  

 

[RoseofGilead.8907]

2 hours ago, Garrison Storm.3046 said:

Well at my current pace (or lack thereof), it would take me waaaaaaaaaaayyyy longer than once!  But I acknowledge that if you are that committed, you can grind your way through by focusing on just a few of the notes...

So out of curiosity, if you are really good at this, how many rounds/songs would it take to hit 1000?  

 

I think it took me four or five total runs of the activity, playing in all of the songs. But I can't say for sure, since I didn't really keep track.

Edit: According to the wiki, playing the lower part (which is the easiest) perfectly each round will get you 151 notes for each full game (all 6 songs) of the bell choir. There's more info and tips there. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bell_Choir_Ensemble#Number_of_Notes_per_Song

Edited December 18, 2023 by RoseofGilead.8907

[Donari.5237]

On 12/18/2023 at 8:18 AM, Atoclone.4810 said:

i'm torn between smashing my face at the jp till i manage to complete it 5 times, current 0 or the bells currently 1% . anet did such a good job of rejigging the dailys so that i get to play what i find fun but come the traditional time of giving i'm stuck between 2 things i'm no good at, don't enjoy and tbh really don't feel the desire to get any better at

The jp was impossible for me until last year when I learned that the paths have varying difficulties (with varying gift reward amounts).  If you go to the right hand path with the quaggan plushie, the snowflakes don't vanish!  I still don't always one shot it for a number of reasons, but I can often one shot it.  There's time to pause, reset the mouse, take a long breath, line up a jump onto a candy cane.  Make it to the fire and you can hang out until there's not a whole pile of people waiting to jump on the presents.  (I have an odd thing where I instinctively steer to not intersect with other players so I jump short or to the side just enough to miss and fall).  Use the peppermint disks to wait out the boulders, don't move where the thin red circles are appearing, and when you get to the final gifts only jump on blue boxes and candy canes.

It'll take some face smashing until you learn the jumps, but it's actually doable.

Signed, a player that cannot do timed jumping for the life of her thanks to slow reflexes combined with mouse steering combined with not enough mouse pad space to constantly steer without ever recentering the mouse, but still has managed to do the Winter Wonderland reasonably reliably thanks to the quaggan path.

(As to Bell Choir, I like the middle notes.  I do the four left fingers resting on 1-4 and four right on 6-9 others above have suggested, with my thumbs resting against each other for stability.  Definitely a top down zoomed out view with the blue/yellow center lanes centered.  I look at where the notes are coming and mentally map them to fingers relative to my left forefinger on blue.  I don't think others mentioned this but during the waiting period for the next song, while the orange bar is filling, you can tap any notes to heal up.  Getting the thousand notes doesn't take all that long, and if you're karma farming then doing the race right before choir and eating a lot of buffs means the first three songs you do in a day nets you a huge amount of karma for minimal effort).

Edited December 20, 2023 by Donari.5237

[Danikat.8537]

5 hours ago, Donari.5237 said:

I still don't always one shot it for a number of reasons, but I can often one shot it.

I doubt anyone gets it right every time.

According to the Winter Wonderland Mastery achievement I've completed the jumping puzzle 593 times, almost all of them doing the same path so I know it pretty much by heart now but I still fail every so often. Yesterday I fell off the 3rd snowflake, and earlier this week I missed the very first jump twice in a row. No idea why, some days I can do it perfectly twice in a row, other days it's a struggle to complete at all and then I go and do something else.

My first year I spend a lot of time trying and failing before getting anywhere with it. I remember feeling like I was finally making progress when I could reach the candy canes after the first set of snowflakes, then the candy platforms that don't disappear, then finally the mid-way point with the bonfire. Actually getting to the end for the first time felt amazing. (I don't know why but I like jumping puzzles even though I'm not that good at them, it always takes me a lot of practice but I like trying so I keep at it.)

It's the same with Bell Choir. Sometimes I can do a whole song, even when I feel like I'm losing track of the notes. Other days it's just not happening and I do what I can and then go and do something else instead. I have a row of keys dedicated to Bell Choir, because my normal skills are on the number pad and in an odd order (heal is on 0, because it's a big, easy to find button, so the utility skills are on 6-8 instead of 7-9) and that works for combat but makes this much harder. So I have a duplicate of just the 8 required for Bell Choir on G - # (just because that's where I had space).

[Garrison Storm.3046]

Regarding the JP,  I also struggle with JPs in general, but after implementing all of the tips received last year and with a little practice, I would say my success rate this year is about 1 in 4, and that's on the easy path.  Not an ace by any means, and enough frustration that I don't bother to do it past the Annual requirement, but at this point the failures are a result of my sloppiness and not difficulty... My 'favorite' smh moment of this year... trying to creep forward to center myself on a peppermint disc, only to initiate a roll/dodge forward... right off the disc!  WHY DID I NEED TO CREEP FORWARD??!!  SMH... LOL.  

Anyway, while subjective I admit, but all to say that this one is definitely 'learnable' compared to some of the other challenging JPs in the game.

[kyaroto.5927]

For Bell, you will get 1000 little by little by playing many times, but for jumping puzzle, even if I tried 10000000 times without passing the whole jp, I still can't get the achievement. 😅

Edited December 26, 2023 by kyaroto.5927

[kyaroto.5927]

On 12/19/2023 at 1:06 AM, SoftFootpaws.9134 said:

i think its just not very friendly to anyone with a ping above about 100ms. my partner from australia tried to do this and couldn't manage to get a single note correctly even after watching a video on  how to do it properly, because it requires developing a mental lag compensation.

 

I'm in SEA, avg ping is 200-250ms, I can get score 600 sometimes. I always press the key while the ball touching the white ring(before touching blue ring). But I need to hear the sound or I'll miss the timing( ears r more important than eyes for me in this mini game). 😅

Edited December 26, 2023 by kyaroto.5927
English correction