Vanquish Branded Recording - are you kidding me?!

[Czokalapik.6091]

Long story short, after unlocking last part of IG backpack collection, I've done 20 recordings in 2 days, it's been over a week now and I'm trying to do Serpent's Ire couple times per day, in most cases the map is simply empty, when sometimes squad of 50+ ppl will manage to get to CC phase, it fails miserably at 80-90% zealots HP.

So my question is - are you kidding me ANet? This recording should be awarded after killing single Zealot, not finishing whole meta because literally no one is doing this meta.

[Oglaf.1074]

Serpent’s Ire meta is one of the biggest failures on Anet’s part in a looooong time. Nobody wants to do it - despite Anet desperately trying to “force” people to do it by constantly connecting it to new content like this backpack.

I wish they’d just realize that it ain’t ever going to make the meta worth doing in the eyes of their players. It will just end up kittening people off by seeing content “locked out” like this.

They need to either seriously nerf the meta or (preferably IMO) cut their losses and shift all the content tied to it elsewhere.

[TexZero.7910]

@Oglaf.1074 said:They need to either seriously nerf the meta

This is what should happen. Anet needs to stop playing the have you cake and eat it to. Either open world is meant for everyone (all skill levels) and thus levels of coordination....Or it's not. You really can't have Open World be this silly as far how intuitive the execution should be.

[Edgy McEdgelord.4790]

If yer on EU, OC is doing Serpent's Ire once a week and they rarely (if ever) fail it.

[Dreadshow.9320]

@Edgy McEdgelord.4790 said:If yer on EU, OC is doing Serpent's Ire once a week and they rarely (if ever) fail it.

I doubt either side will pay the transfer fee to test it so I'll just assume it's easier on EU side which opens a whole new can of wyrms.

[FrizzFreston.5290]

I never really felt that this meta was hard at all. Just not worth replaying over and over so there's less meta dogs for the meta sheep to follow.

Either way, I don't mind some harder but also well designed meta events. The problem with this meta is that it has not much design beyond the balance of the event. (I mean, it's just fighting enemies in random order, then fight some breakbars and some bosses and then fight some more bosses. )

[Oglaf.1074]

@FrizzFreston.5290 said:I never really felt that this meta was hard at all.

This particular event is “hard” for all the wrong reasons. It is not “good hard”. “Good hard” is, well, good.

[ugrakarma.9416]

on first months wasnt so hard, i guess some patch messed up it.

[Lexi.1398]

TTS does it on NA on a schedule, but imma eu player so im never awake to try and find them. xP

[AliamRationem.5172]

Hey, I have a great idea! Let's make a really annoying zone where lightning strikes you every couple of seconds and then put a meta in it where you have to run around a huge area looking for 5 spawns. Then follow it up with an event virtually nobody completes that rewards basically nothing. Oh, and let's make it required for collections, too!

Huge fail.

[Moonyeti.3296]

I just finished this collection days ago and this event was the main roadblock. I feel your pain. I wish I had better advice then camp the spot and troll LFG for every opportunity to get it done. I probably had like 12 fails before I got the event to succeed. I hope I don't need to do it for another collection any time soon.

[Ashantara.8731]

@ugrakarma.9416 said:on first months wasnt so hard, i guess some patch messed up it.

Yes, I am wondering too why people seem to have such issues with it. Apparently, it has been changed (unintentionally?).

[xoz.2481]

I'd personally rather they boost the rewards thus incentivising experienced players to keep doing it like Triple Trouble

[Ayrilana.1396]

The meta is fine. It’s not flawed because it has a mechanic that players are unwilling to perform.

It’s completed successfully many times a week on both NA and EU.

[Ben K.6238]

@Dreadshow.9320 said:opens a whole new can of wyrms.

I approve.

[starlinvf.1358]

@"Ayrilana.1396" said:The meta is fine. It’s not flawed because it has a mechanic that players are unwilling to perform.

It’s completed successfully many times a week on both NA and EU.

^ This. Theres a long running joke in the GW2 community about PUGs having unbound every key except "1"........ but as things move forward, I'm starting to wonder if this still a joke. In spite of the garbage tier advise of "you can run anything in open world", POF does require a minimal amount of buildcraft to get anywhere solo..... which I'm assuming most people have a grasp of basic concepts like Break Bars, what CC effects are, and how to find them in your skill sets. Since Especs are a major selling point, and Vabbi literally the LAST map in the expansion's run, people should have most of the Espec unlocked by the time they get there. Since every Espec has access to a lot of soft CC skills, and a substantial amount of Hard CCs on every class between either Espec line, the only way a player could make it that far, while retaining total ignorance to common mechanics, is either sheer luck or force of will. And even then, any half way attempt to organize events that involve CCs will also point out, very vocally, the importance of CCs, and point out which skills for each class has the strongest options. Even if the event fails, people should know what these are by now.

What it boils down to in many open world events is an unwillingness to contribute unless it directly benefits a player via drops.... in which case, a thing will melt and people will immediately complain about the tagging rules. In events where carefully metering CC as a benefit usually has the PUGs just unloading all their biggest skills and breaking the bar too early, where as any event where breaking a bar is key to a quick victory, its like no one is using their CC skills at all. At worst, Serpent's Ire suffers from a similar scaling rule oddity that Gerrant had in its early days; but had always resulted in more favorable fights for smaller groups. SI only really needs 25 people to make work, but its a bit hard to get a grasp on the scaling, due to how large the event area is. A change to those rules can easily nerf it to the point where 5 people with CC makes the break section trivial, which in turn makes that whole phase trivial since its the source of the damage mitigation.

There are basically 2 ways to win the fight, both requiring fairly minimal coordination. Circle Strat, or 5 way split. Circle strat is simply trying to beat the damage mitigation through sheer DPS... and I've seen this done before. The 5-way split has 5 groups armed with CCs to break the bar, which in turn reduces the damage reduction buff across all 5 of them. The DPS windows are limited, but just CCing them down as fast as possible increases the DPS across the board, as it keeps their buffs out of play as much as possible (and stops adding to the Bomb's progress). The 5 teams have to be autonomous, but their job is pretty straight forward. But again- the event itself isn't hard, but theres quirks in the scaling that make it seem harder then it is.

There are guilds that run this event a few times a week, and all it takes is 25 people who know what CC are, having them all stand in one of 5 places, and using said skills as often as possible. But this basic concept of "understanding how a fight works" still escapes people, even when its being explained to them week after week.... sometimes daily (ie Teq and Shatterer). Just a little while ago I was in a Teq fight where half the Turret ops didn't understand Turret 2 skill and Hardened Scales, despite the Commander explaining it 3 times before the fight, and me and 2 other Turret ops calling it out in map chat mid-fight. And those operators had to have known something, because they knew enough to cleanse poison fields off themselves. So could you categorize that as ignorance? Or is it intentional? But how much do you have to shut out chat to not be able to follow the hive mind of the zerg? And not learning that after possibly months of doing that event daily? It doesn't add up.

[Czokalapik.6091]

@Ayrilana.1396 said:The meta is fine. It’s not flawed because it has a mechanic that players are unwilling to perform.

It’s completed successfully many times a week on both NA and EU.

That would be true if there is more than 20-30 ppl in the map, putting LFG rarely gets you more.

@Edgy McEdgelord.4790 said:If yer on EU, OC is doing Serpent's Ire once a week and they rarely (if ever) fail it.

Thank you, I'm on EU, I'll be sure to check next event

[Ayrilana.1396]

@Czokalapik.6091 said:

@Ayrilana.1396 said:The meta is fine. It’s not flawed because it has a mechanic that players are unwilling to perform.

It’s completed successfully many times a week on both NA and EU.

That would be true if there is more than 20-30 ppl in the map, putting LFG rarely gets you more.

That’s no more of an issue as not being able to do TT, Teq, DS, etc because you don’t have enough players. Not having people does mean there’s an issue with the meta.