Serpent's Ire has a reward problem

[Chadramar.8156]

The breakbars in p2 are ridiculous, and the timer is really tight. Best I've seen so far for the supgroups I was in was ~40%, with at most one of the others being dead. To the people who said they've seen it succeed: did you split up or just hit one after another with a big murderball? I've only seen the split approach tried, and people getting angry about it because they claimed that zerging is much easier. But doesn't it scale the breakbar to even more ridiculous levels? What about the time (again: extremely tight timer) running from one boss to the next?

[Zaklex.6308]

@Chadramar.8156 said:The breakbars in p2 are ridiculous, and the timer is really tight. Best I've seen so far for the supgroups I was in was ~40%, with at most one of the others being dead. To the people who said they've seen it succeed: did you split up or just hit one after another with a big murderball? I've only seen the split approach tried, and people getting angry about it because they claimed that zerging is much easier. But doesn't it scale the breakbar to even more ridiculous levels? What about the time (again: extremely tight timer) running from one boss to the next?

From what I've seen so far with bosses and scaling of the break bar, if you have a big enough zerg no matter how much it scales it will melt very quickly...it happens with some of the Bounties, they can get taken down in less than 2 minutes...especially if people know what they're doing when it comes to using their CC to break the bar.

[IndigoSundown.5419]

@Chickenooble.5014 said:Until PoF releases a meta that opens an underground city with 50 chests to loot, it'll always be inferior loot.

How about a floating citadel? It could be the home of a man named Howell.

[Kiza.5630]

@"Chadramar.8156" said:To the people who said they've seen it succeed: did you split up or just hit one after another with a big murderball? I've only seen the split approach tried, and people getting angry about it because they claimed that zerging is much easier.

I've only ever used 5 groups, 1 per zealot. Looking at how https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Defensive_Veil works, both variants should be able to succeed. Zerg variant: outside channeling first one will take no damage, second will take no damage, third will take -99%, forth -66%, last -33%.

I find that a bit risky tbh. Probably only works for groups that know how to break the bars very fast. With "mixed" groups where not all bars are broken reliably, 5 groups should work better as the slower group benefits from the broken bars of the other ones. Well, unless no group manages to break theirs.

[Pridedemon.3041]

I am in the same boat, i spent past couple days (my weekend time) to finish all other collection and now hit a wall with this event. This is the last item for my funerary collection too and its impossible to do it. I was online 8 hours yesterday (Sunday) and monitoring LFG Vabbi open world consistently and didn't even see a single pop for Serpent's Ire call. Everything was filled with Legendary bounty trains.

I tried to group up with 2 of my friends and got no-where, this event is IMPOSSIBLE to complete period. ANET either needs to significantly tone down the event or simply remove the collection item achievement from this event. I am so annoyed right now having dedicated over 10 hours of my weekend time for a collection and then hit a wall which is beyond my control. If it was extremely difficult but soloable i would have spent 20 hours trying to figure out how to solo but its not possible here.

I am not spending a single penny on a gem store anymore until this gets fixed. Yes i bought over 10k gems in past couple months, i know this is nothing for ANET but i am doing my part.

[Nilkemia.8507]

This meta should be an example of how to never design a meta event.

[Vyrulisse.1246]

Killed my FPS when I did it along with most of the squad if chat was any indicator. A.net once again sacrificing gameplay experience to make things look cool and flashy.

[Ayumi Spender.1082]

@"Vyrulisse.1246" said:Killed my FPS when I did it along with most of the squad if chat was any indicator. A.net once again sacrificing gameplay experience to make things look cool and flashy.

Define "Cool".It looks like a horrid mess. A horrid flashy mess.

[Boogiepop Void.6473]

Still can't do it. The event, as predicted, has fallen out of favor so hard as to be functionally impossible because absolutely no one is running it. It needs either a major overhaul to to simply be removed from the game entirely and the collection attached to something else.

[ThomasC.1056]

A whole lot of good analysis of the issues Serpent's Ire has.

@Pifil.5193 said:Given how ArenaNet tend to move on and never look back at content I can't see this changing.

I think that the inclusion of Pallawadan and the Great Hall (even ignoring the vastly superior loot are actually really fun metas, IMO) are just two more nails in the Serpents' Ire coffin.

I'm afraid about that too. Well...

[cyndelaq.7148]

I only think two things need to be changed with the second phase of this event.

First - Currently (January, 2018) CC seems to have little effect on their defiance bars. I'm not sure if that's intended or if it's a bug, but if CC isn't as effective, or if simply a lot is needed, I think it needs to be tuned down a bit.

Second - Each zealot has a buff that reduces the amount of damage they while shielded by 33%. Instead of taking normal damage while their shield is broken, make it so that the zealots buff is reversed; they take 33% more damage while unshielded.

[Kiza.5630]

@"cyndelaq.7148" said:

Second - Each zealot has a buff that reduces the amount of damage they while shielded by 33%. Instead of taking normal damage while their shield is broken, make it so that the zealots buff is reversed; they take 33% more damage while unshielded.

Don't forget that it's -33% is per zealot channeling. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Defensive_VeilMost seem to forget that when suggesting the giant zerg version.

While I'm not against toning down the whole thing significantly, it's still possible in the current state. I picked up 48 random players from lfg on Monday. We had a second squad with like 10 ppl around and maybe 10 wandering around randomly. Last zealot died with ~30% left.

Bottom line: put up lfg early (I did 45 mins) so you start with a full squad and have plenty of time before the event, use map chat to get everyone excited and to participate, explain the need for cc with every second sentence. ;)

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

I just attempted it twice today. Didn't even get two zealots down.

First attempt was hosted by me. Started recruiting half an hour I split up the squad into equal parts, and we had around 30 people total doing the event. We just didn't have enough power or CC. The event doesn't scale down, so in spite of having 5 people per zealot, we couldn't accomplish anything. Again, double tides of time + gravity well doesn't do squat to their bar.

Second attempt was hosted by another person, who attempted the pseudo-zerg strategy. We had a full squad of 50 people with several ones wandering outside. They managed to get a single zealot down, but due to hasty organization nobody was in the right place. It was me and one other person on my zealot. After failure, when I mentioned that the gigantic zerg strategy doesn't work, but everyone remained in denial. That person is going to keep hosting zerg squads forever.

Again, I must insist that this event is too hard. There is not enough time to organize. There is not enough time to explain. There is not enough time to spread out There are too many misconceptions. Gathering players is like herding cats. A quarter of the playerbase has no idea what "CC" is. The event doesn't scale down, so the whole map needs to cooperate to get it done.

[Boogiepop Void.6473]

I ran it 4 times in a day and finally on the 4th attempt, with 2 full squads participating, we got it done. And now I'm never going back.

[WafflingMean.4351]

Hello everyone I'm from the future and I can say this is still a problem. So there's another collection that requires Serpents' Ire to be completed. Redeeming IG-6417, a part of the 'Bug in the System' living world episode. Honestly, this event cannot be done. I've tried about 12 or so times, and no one, ever, shows up. I've played at peak time on my server and no one would even look at this event.

And guess what, obviously there would have been an initial phase when this collection became available when people zerged back here and did the meta, but thanks to Anet creating a bug, some of us were not allowed to do that, because a bug erased the recording devices we needed for the event to count towards the collection. So while I was waiting for them to be returned, I and others completely missed this zerg stage. So now, I need two achievements from this meta and they cannot be done. 12 attempts, 12 failures.And guess what, I should have actually completed it twice, but the first time, the last zealot never spawned (we got no notification for it and we had 30+ people scouring the entire Brand) so despite finally having a chance the game just denied us all the achievement, and then the second time, it seems a guild came through with a squad of 50, and unless I had lined up and waited for half an hour doing NOTHING beforehand, I couldn't even get onto their map. It seems they tried to incentivise people to do this meta by putting another collection on it, but it was temporary, and thanks to their bug many of us had no chance to take advantage of that window.

What the original poster was afraid of has happened. This meta is dead. No one who has ever done it before goes anywhere near it and a very large amount of people who haven't managed to complete it have given up. There is no possibility of completion and barely any reward if you do. So unless the stars aline and you get a full map of people all who are new to POF and want to do it, it's over. This needs to be changed. No wonder Vabbi feels so much smaller than the other maps, they have effectively barred a third of it off with this event as its main feature and those stupid lightning strikes.

[Ayrilana.1396]

@"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said:Second attempt was hosted by another person, who attempted the pseudo-zerg strategy. We had a full squad of 50 people with several ones wandering outside. They managed to get a single zealot down, but due to hasty organization nobody was in the right place. It was me and one other person on my zealot. After failure, when I mentioned that the gigantic zerg strategy doesn't work, but everyone remained in denial. That person is going to keep hosting zerg squads forever.

The zerg strategy is the optimal way to do it. Each boss you kill makes killing the others easier. The reason you failed was because you weren’t organized enough as you were rushed.

Again, I must insist that this event is too hard. There is not enough time to organize. There is not enough time to explain. There is not enough time to spread out There are too many misconceptions. Gathering players is like herding cats. A quarter of the playerbase has no idea what "CC" is. The event doesn't scale down, so the whole map needs to cooperate to get it done.

The event starts at specific times. There more than enough time to prepare and explain to players what CC is if they don’t already know.

[Silmar Alech.4305]

Wait, there is a new LS4 collection apart from the funerary armor that requires that event? I did not realize that yet. That means, this event is running fine as it was designed and envisioned by the devs.Thanks for the information. I will not even try to start that collection to avoid the frustration that comes with this event. It's a waste of time.

[TawnyOwlet.6091]

I am so sick of this Meta in its current state.

As soon as I saw that the new collection required you to finish Serpent's Ire in order to acquire the Mark Y golem backpiece I was annoyed. I have been checking the LFG almost daily to no avail, by the time I finally do find a group, we hardly round up the sufficient numbers to succeed anyway. At this point i'm basically venting because of how frustrated that nothing has been changed yet.

DEVS PLEASE just nerf this event. Sorry, but it just requires too many people/too much organization for such mediocre rewards. The CC bars during the second phase alone are ridiculous and are probably the cause of the majority of failures with this meta. I don't mean to sound whiny but you really can't keep creating Meta's like this that require more and more players when your player base is already stretched thin between the other several maps that also have large easier meta events WITH BETTER REWARDS. sigh

I have no idea if the devs care/are doing anything about it/are aware of the frustration with this meta, but beyond making another forum post on the same subject, I don't know how to reach out to them. I will be very pleased when something is actually done to make this event more accessible and less painful for everyone.

TLDR; Nerf the Serpent's Ire Meta, everyone cbf doing it in its current state, which makes getting any of the achieves linked to it almost impossible.

[Glenstorm.4059]

I've tried this event multiple times now, and have always failed to get past the CC/burst stage. It also requires so much organizing and hectoring people. Plus, it doesn't happen nearly often enough to re-attempt with a group that mostly knows what it's doing.

It's supremely frustrating and I don't think I'll ever get the final piece of Funerary armor that I'm missing (the gloves.)

[GrubySzymek.1362]

@Boogiepop Void.6473 said:I ran it 4 times in a day and finally on the 4th attempt, with 2 full squads participating, we got it done. And now I'm never going back.

Unless anet gives us another collection/achievement excuse to artificially populate this event. I've done Serpent's Ire 3 times already and I hate everything this event represents.

[Dondarrion.2748]

If they just scaled back the insane defiance/break bar of the 5 Branded Zealots at the beginning of the 2nd phase, nobody would be complaining about this meta.

[Orpheal.8263]

The whole meta of that map needs to get adjusted ..

1) there needs to be added a mastery, which helps the players by making them immune to these super annoying lightnings that permanently hit you like every 3 seconds, and force ypou to travel by either gryphon or manta just to avoid getting permanently damaged, making it very hard to survive in these areas, unless you are in such a djinn bubble, which protects you fro mthe lightnings, or you are together in a group/zerg, to let all the aoe heals ect. keep you alive and negate the constant lightnign damage this way. But für juast having a less stressful exploration experience, a mastery that makes you immune to be targeted by those lioghtnings woudl be nice to get ...

2) the enemies which you need to kill, shoudl get shown onto the map, so that you don't have to esearch half the map, until you find these enemies finally, wastingmeanwhile alot of time , which makes the whole event row just only annoying. rather show those enemies directly and buff them therefore a bit for not havign to search them anymore and the event will make more fun ...and palyers wil lget this way quicker to the meaningful part of the meta, the final boss fight.

3) the absolute ridiculous way too strong breakbars need either to be reduced, so that the djinns can be stunned easier... cause its absolutely absurd how you you have to spam them full with cc, until you receive a way too short time window off dealign damage.. or instead of this just increase the time window in which players can deal damage, so that the burst phase becomes better, so that players actually have a better chance of defeating them and not get after a few minutes just out of a sudden instant wiped everybody..withotu knowing, what actualyl went wrong to know, why the event failed and everybody got wiped with a massive aoe 1 hit kill attack ...

The event needs to get scaled down better , so that it becomes better to do also by smaller zergs. PoF is due to the bad rewards of the maps by far not actively enough played anymore buy the players, than what this event under its current design requires for a neccessary amount of players similar, like mentioned before, to gerent, tarir and co and that is not ok.. the event needs to get adjusted, especialyl now, where you have actually a reason for havign to do this meta, aside of gaining 10Ap from an achievement, by needing to have to do it now, if you want to complete the current living world episodes IG-achievement row to obtain the ascended version of the episodes backitem reward for which you need to complete this meta event to get for your recall device what you need to teach IG heroism

[DarcShriek.5829]

I accidentally ran into a really well organized group this last weekend and we completed it with time to spare. I have to say, the reward for the event seems rather light compared to AB, DS or SW. I would like to either see the rewards buffed or the event nerfed.

[Trinnitty.8256]

TTS has a very good guide that I like a lot.http://forums.ttsgamers.com/topic/2989-serpents-ire-guide/

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

@"Zaklex.6308" said:The biggest problem is that players are lazy...they don't want to work for anything, they'd rather have it handed to them on a silver platter.

Asking for either the difficulty to be reduced to match the reward or the reward to increase to match the difficulty doesn't equal "I want instant gratification".