Secret Lair, Toypocalypse, Infinirarium: how to enter public/squad?

[Ashantara.8731]

Heya,

I find the introduction of public access to these Wintersday activities extremely confusing. I would prefer it to be like Strike Missions where you can select upon opening the instance whether it should be a public or a closed one.

So, what entrances/NPCs open which of the two modes? How can I select to open a closed squad instance for each?

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Toypocalypse has two different entrances...public lower, squad upper. Freezie has the regular Strike Mission entrance. Infinirarium is a regular dungeon entrance. Afaik.

[Ashantara.8731]

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:Toypocalypse has two different entrances...public lower, squad upper.

Ah, thank you. :)

[Knighthonor.4061]

Very confusing. This my first Wintersdsy event to really jump into.

[Ashantara.8731]

@Knighthonor.4061 said:Very confusing. This my first Wintersdsy event to really jump into.

I hope they will change it for every instance to have just one way to enter that provides you with a pop-up to choose which mode you want to open.

[Rasimir.6239]

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@Knighthonor.4061 said:Very confusing. This my first Wintersdsy event to really jump into.

I hope they will change it for every instance to have just one way to enter that provides you with a pop-up to choose which mode you want to open.It's really just the Toypocalypse that has two entrances, and that's for historical reasons. Originally it was only available as the random join option based on the pvp activities template. If you enter that one (the lower entrance) you'll notice the game defaulting to your pvp equipment and build templates (if they differ from the pve ones). The upper entrance opens a dungeon-style instance instead that you can enter with a (full or partial) party. That one was added later to allow people to play the Toypocalypse with a premade party. The difference to the random join entrance is that in the party instance you are using your pve build and equipment, so technically speaking it's a dungeon, not an activity. This can also make for a difference in combat performance you see based on the trait differences between pve and pvp and/or if the people you join with have a decent build for the corresponding gamemode selected.

The (technical) difference between Toypocalypse and the strike missions (Freezie included) is that it only works for a 5-man party, not a 10-man squad. Adjusting the entrance to the Toypocalypse to work in the same style as strike missions might not be as technically trivial as it looks at first glance. On the other hand if they do set up a random join option for this, it should be just a small step to adjust it to work for other 5-person instanced content, too, namely dungeons (and possibly fractals, although that would be more complex due to tier access). Personally I'd put this one on my wishlist to Santa right away, not so much because of Toypocalypse but because I love running dungeons, but I'm not sure there's enough dungeon fans out there anymore to make this a worthwhile project :D .