Just Got To Dragon Response Missions; Loving Them

[EphemeralWallaby.7643]

I took a break from GW2 after PoF dropped, came back earlier this year, and have been slowly working my way through all the new-to-me content in story order.

I recently opened up the Dragon Response Missions from IBS... and I have to say I love these.  They're everything I've wanted from instances/dungeons: scalable to player count (I often play solo and duo), variable difficulty with commensurate rewards, less than an hour (heck, less than 30 minutes) playtime, and a lot of things I want to buy with the tyrian defense seal currency.

Thank you, Anet!

As I purposely haven't looked into the specifics of many of the features of EoD and now SotO, I'm looking forward to discovering if there's anything similar you've added in those.  I know broadly what's there as it's impossible not to learn when browsing these forums, but not a lot of the specifics.  I probably won't get to EoD until a few months into next year... and I don't expect to start SotO until late next year.  I'm hoping for more such wonderful surprises.  🙂

~EpWa

[Assolador.3598]

uh, is this a troll? I mean, drms are the most hated content in this game

[Linken.6345]

I mean its story content OP its alaways been 1-5 contentt and easy as kitten if more then 1.

They should have just made them story episodes.

[EphemeralWallaby.7643]

2 hours ago, Assolador.3598 said:

uh, is this a troll? I mean, drms are the most hated content in this game

No, I sincerely like them.

~EpWa

Edited December 26, 2023 by EphemeralWallaby.7643

[Mell.4873]

The content was incomplete and a bit rushed since I believe it was around the time that EoD was green lit so they had to move on and start the expansion. 

[EphemeralWallaby.7643]

42 minutes ago, Mell.4873 said:

The content was incomplete and a bit rushed since I believe it was around the time that EoD was green lit so they had to move on and start the expansion. 

That doesn't surprise me, tbh.  Nor does it surprise me that the content isn't generally well-regarded, given how little it's talked about.  Oh well, not the first time I've enjoyed something others don't, lol.

~EpWa

[Teknomancer.4895]

4 hours ago, EphemeralWallaby.7643 said:

slowly working my way through all the new-to-me content in story order

🍀Good luck sticking to that, I tried it when I came back and ended up jumping around the story anyway for one reason or another (usually zone unlocks, etc) so the story order stopped mattering before too long. I've only got one or two toons I care about story completion for anyway.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

18 hours ago, Assolador.3598 said:

uh, is this a troll? I mean, drms are the most hated content in this game

if the forum are to be believed then all content is the most hated content in the game, in fact players just seem to hate the game completely.

 

@ thread:

i actually liked dragon response missions at release (before i realised they were all going to be tedious escorts), because i thought that going forward all story missions were going to be these five-player scalable dynamic event dungeons with challenge motes, which had far more potential than previous story mission design. unfortunately a few weeks later they went back to the usual, very outdated story missions and i was quite disappointed.

 

it reminds me of how when path of fire came out everyone was ecstatic because we thought there was going to be hearts in the story after the first raptor mission, only to find out that was the only heart ever added to the story (instanced, not open-world) in the entire game.

Edited December 26, 2023 by SoftFootpaws.9134

[Solvar.7953]

I was going to ask the OP if they have played through all the DRMs.

IMO, they start out OK, but some get annoying difficult, and after doing half a dozen, really start to feel repetitive - if you have only done a few, you probably haven't gotten to that point yet.

And if you want certain rewards and achievements, you need to play through them a bunch of times - which isn't really different than most content, but because these are fairly cookie cutter, it isn't like you are repeating the same content 5 times, bur rather repeating it 30 times.

 

[EphemeralWallaby.7643]

8 hours ago, Solvar.7953 said:

I was going to ask the OP if they have played through all the DRMs.

IMO, they start out OK, but some get annoying difficult, and after doing half a dozen, really start to feel repetitive - if you have only done a few, you probably haven't gotten to that point yet.

And if you want certain rewards and achievements, you need to play through them a bunch of times - which isn't really different than most content, but because these are fairly cookie cutter, it isn't like you are repeating the same content 5 times, bur rather repeating it 30 times.

 

Nope, I haven't done them all yet... I think I've finished unlocking all of the destroyer ones, and over the next few weeks I'll start unlocking and trying the icebrood ones.

I'm not too worried about them feeling repetitive... I've lost count as to how many times I've done Tequatl, let alone the other world bosses, or meta events like the Octovine, bounties, flipping wvw camps, dailies, and so on.  The trick for me is not to binge content I enjoy... so these dragon response missions are getting added to the list of things that I can choose from to do on the weekday evenings when my available playing time is incredibly limited.  I doubt I'll do more than 2 or 3 a week.   And, for any that get harder, I recall when Teq was difficult and a bit stressful, and now it's just a rote activity that rewards a gold when I do it.  My more abundant available playing time on the weekend is then devoted to progressing story, getting map completion in new zones I've unlocked, masteries, or working on long-term projects (such as I recently finished getting access to original (not SoTO) skyscale). 

It will be a shame if the later ones don't live up to these earlier ones, but I'm glad I have these earlier ones to play.  Dungeons, Fractals, and Strike Missions are just too much in a lot of ways, but this is content I can do and enjoy.

~EpWa

Edited December 27, 2023 by EphemeralWallaby.7643

[devzero.4093]

I just finished the Icebrood Saga story the other day and after the third dragon response mission I was praying for it to be the last one only to get another, and then another, and another, and another and another and... I wanted it all to end. I know that it must have been better paced when it was first released but good lord just dumping that many dragon response missions back to back on us to complete the story is a bit excessive. I'm aware of the resource limitations during that time but stil...

I feel like they should have left it at the 2-3 most important ones for the story and then just concluded the story. The others could have been optional, not part of the story.

I must add that I was really happy when I saw a few other lost souls doing the same DRM with me as it meant that it wouldn't be a completely terrible and depressing experience and actually had a bit of fun during those moments. But mostly it was just a bad solo experience.

Edited January 1 by devzero.4093

[Linken.6345]

56 minutes ago, devzero.4093 said:

I just finished the Icebrood Saga story the other day and after the third dragon response mission I was praying for it to be the last one only to get another, and then another, and another, and another and another and... I wanted it all to end. I know that it must have been better paced when it was first released but good lord just dumping that many dragon response missions back to back on us to complete the story is a bit excessive. I'm aware of the resource limitations during that time but stil...

I feel like they should have left it at the 2-3 most important ones for the story and then just concluded the story. The others could have been optional, not part of the story.

I must add that I was really happy when I saw a few other lost souls doing the same DRM with me as it meant that it wouldn't be a completely terrible and depressing experience and actually had a bit of fun during those moments. But mostly it was just a bad solo experience.

yea we got 1 every 2 weeks i think it was, would have been great if not all of them werte the same 3 pre events, escort then boss

Edited January 1 by Linken.6345

[weewoo.6573]

Currently doing them. They are honestly quite refreshing compared to instanced story missions. I don't see them as repeatable dungeon type of content, but they are a cool way to flash out the terror Primordus is doing across Tyria.

They are short, instanced, soloable, scalable content (that can get quite repetitive) and they really suit the story. Sad they don't have more mechanics to them and mostly boil down to "rescue, kill, something random" and "escort" or "kill all enemies" and then the boss. They could've been a lot better, the fundamentals are there, but mechanics and diversity isn't IMHO.

Either way, they don't deserve to be as hated as they are. They are what Zhaitan fight was when game first came out, but better.

[LSD.4673]

7 hours ago, weewoo.6573 said:

They are short, instanced, soloable, scalable content (that can get quite repetitive)

Sad they don't have more mechanics to them and mostly boil down to "rescue, kill, something random" and "escort" or "kill all enemies" and then the boss.

They could've been a lot better, the fundamentals are there, but mechanics and diversity isn't IMHO.

This is literally the reason they are hated. You do one DRM, "oh, ok, that was a bit repetitive but it was ok i guess". Then you do the next DRM, and it's the exact same thing. Then again. And again. And again.

Even story-wise there was nothing to it. It was just "the first thing" done over and over again. And if you wanted to max IBS mastery, you sure as kitten had to do them over and over again even more.

It's bad. And the fact it was used as the only story backdrop for the entire Jormag and Primordus storyline is what puts icing on the cake. Awful.

[Ashantara.8731]

On 12/26/2023 at 12:24 AM, Assolador.3598 said:

uh, is this a troll? I mean, drms are the most hated content in this game

Excuse me? They were tons of fun compared to Rift Hunts (and even Convergences, which have only two bosses). There were several of them with different scenarios and different bosses, and some were quite challenging at the time (that was before Power Creep).

To me, the most hated content is Rift Hunts, Inner Nayos Part1 and Gyala Delve -- in that order.

[Randulf.7614]

I don't hate DRM's in themselves. It's just the number of them and that they replaced map content was the issue. I suspect if they existed alongside other content to break the slog up and allow for more variety, they wouldn't have the bad reputation. As story based instanced content, they are fine individually. But as a continuous chain with nothing else between.. not so much

[weewoo.6573]

13 hours ago, LSD.4673 said:

Even story-wise there was nothing to it. It was just "the first thing" done over and over again.

I hate how you didn't even try to understand. Story isn't same as gameplay. From storytelling POV (gameplay) it's bad. From story POV it's good. It's 2 different terms with 2 different meanings.

[Solvar.7953]

Sure, there are a lot of things that from a story POV make perfect sense, but are not fun to play (the number of mobs in Orr when the game first released is an example - it makes sense that the area was crawling with undead, but as a player, having to hack may way through masses to get anything done got tiring pretty quickly - this is before all the power creep mind you - to the extent that at some point Anet reduced the mob count in Orr to some degree).

The thing is, I play games to have fun (under some broad definition of fun).  I've seen the realism happen in other games - not just MMOs, but even things like board games or in person RPGs, and generally it turns me off.  I have enough ways to spend time in a non enjoyable way - asking me to do it on my free time will tend to have me stop doing whatever that activity is.

[weewoo.6573]

So we agree.

[willow.8209]

I did a DRM during the recent event and I enjoyed it and I especially liked that it scales. We've been asking for scaling dungeons for I think basically forever. 

I tend to switch activities to keep myself engaged and the content not feeling stale. But sometimes I just like to repeat stuff so I'll come to know what I'm doing.

Maybe I'll feel differently while getting IBS masteries, but for now I feel positive about them. 

There are some minuses to doing content when it's not the newest thing, but there must be some minuses to doing content when it's new and that's the only thing in the game that you need to work on to get masteries or whatever. Of course there are pluses to both ways too! 

Edited January 8 by willow.8209

[Krzysztof.5973]

Everyone saying that they love DRMs clearly hadn't done all the collections associated with them, specially soon after they were released 🙂

[weewoo.6573]

13 hours ago, Krzysztof.5973 said:

Everyone saying that they love DRMs clearly hadn't done all the collections associated with them, specially soon after they were released 🙂

Or, we just enjoy a different kind of content, instead of crying because they weren't new maps like exclusively open world players, or that it isn't hard as hell like hardcore PvE players. 

Edited January 8 by weewoo.6573

[MercurialKuroSludge.8974]

I think a lot of the ppl defending DRMs in here have never tried to play it with friends.
Even in Private Instances, if you join right as the Pre-events are done, the Instance locks out and you get sent to a brand new one, leaving you and your friends separated, this problem is also very frequently noticed when new players try to do LW1 content, the instance progresses past a point and then just locks, which may or may not trigger the same mental response of "wtf why?".
Asking your friends to ditch their current instance after they've just finished Pre-events for the team, and thought ppl wud just load in not needing to worry about anything, this is a blow to morale, not mention cumbersome.
Not even dungeons lock ppl out like this, you just load in, wait for party OOC, then go to the correct WP, however deep the progress is, DRMs dont allow that.

Add to the fact that DRMs are visited as a "Last few points for IBS masteries", and some of the Mastery Achieves can be very painful for even veteran players, like "Friendly Fire".

You have the right to find it fun, because that is an opinion.
Objectively speaking, it is another copy of dungeons that makes playing with a group difficult to set up, and it doesn't even have its own LFG category.
Most of the playerbase has the right to despise DRMs, they are quite frankly very poorly implemented.