21 replies to this topic

[Wifflebottom]

So is anyone starting to hate fractals? Seriously the way that they've been in the past 3 monthlys, I'm getting tired of them. I feel like Arenanet doesn't want people to play the other dungeons. Sure when they came out they were very fun but they're really getting boring. FoTM is the only dungeon people want to do anymore, not saying it's hard to get a group for other dungeons but I can only do like 1 or 2 runs before someone wants to leave and go do fractals. The news that they're adding even more fractals means that even MORE people will be playing them. I dunno maybe I'm unreasonable but the PvE of a game shouldn't be almost completely engulfed in ONE dungeon in my opinion. It seems that Anet's just abandoning support of their old dungeons to make fractals more popular, I mean why do other dungeons when fractals gives you: gold, exotics/ectos, and ascended gear? *sigh* /rant

TL;DR: I think Fractals got boring and it seems Arenanet is abandoning support of old dungeons in favor Fractals.

[Flaming_Foxx]

Yeah, I think part of the problem is that they realised they needed something that was adaptive that they could change over time. It worked, I mean, everyone is doing them right! And it's very easy to see how they can just go and add new levels later on. Unfortunately I feel like it's actually created more problems than it's solved since as you say, it's stopped (largely) people from doing other dungeons.
I definitely agree with your opinion that a huge chunk of PvE time shouldn't end up being channeled to one dungeon. I realise that others are going to disagree with that, but I do feel like FoTM has almost become the 'endgame' <-- I hate that word and GW2 was great and up until the release of FoTM had pretty much said NO! to the concept of an end game. I feel like unfortunately it's only there to cater to all of those people who need to feel like they can grind through some end-game dungeon just because they think they've 'finished' the game. >.>

[Maarius]

fractals isn't really only one dungeon, it's 9 completely different mini-dungeons and the mechanics are fun. They said that they overhaul the classic dungeon boss encounters which means that they are not happy with the current ones.

It's also much easier to find a group for this "1" dungeon than for 32 different ones. The only gating here are the fractal-ranks, which we will have much less restricted with the upcoming patch.

They don't want the community to split into different parts of the game since this would make it much more difficult for grouping. Why I think this? Because of that statement related to PvP:

Quote

Guild-Wars2.info: Certain PvP game types in the original Guild Wars, like Heroes’ Ascent and GvG, were favorites amongst PvP players. Can you discuss why these game types did not make it into Guild Wars 2?

Izzy: Mainly one of the big issues we wanted to avoid with Guild Wars 2 was creating too many games types, which leads to a fragmented player base and adds a lot of complexity when balancing. This tends to lead to many game-types being left out as it's impossible to develop new content and features for all of them in a timely manner.

http://gw2.onlinewel...cartwright.html

this is probably also why they plan to bring new fractals into the existing fractal-group, instead of implementing a fractal 2 hub.

[Arewn]

Then do other dungeons o.O
Like you said, it's by no means difficult getting a group together to do the other dungeons, so mix those in with fractals to keep things fresh(er).
I mean.. of course its going to get boring if you're doing just FotM for 3 months.
It's true that 3 months of fractals monthly is getting old to say the least, but from what I've heard there will be dungeon revamps (improve bosses) coming sometime in the 'near' future, maybe they're holding out for that?

I agree with you that pve shouldn't be so narrowly focused on one thing/aspect though, and that Anet needs to change things up/incentives more dungeon variety.

[jthamind]

i hate fractals too. when they were first announced, i thought it was gonna be like a "survival" dungeon, where you kept going for as long as you could in one session, and each fractal would be much shorter. that would be been kinda cool, and more fun than this imo.

the way they are now, though....they have no appeal whatsoever to me after doing each fractal once. i've completed up to level 10, and i just stopped. i'm not interested in Ascended gear. i refuse to play the gear treadmill game, so that's one less reason for me to run them. and on top of that, i don't really find most of the fractal dungeons particularly entertaining. and on top of all that, if i need to get some quick gold, i'd rather just go do CoF path 1 a couple times and salvage ectos off the tokens i get, in addition to the money i'd get from dungeon completion.

and i agree with OP about them being bad for PvE in general. it seems like that's all people want to do anymore, unless you go to something like gw2lfg, then it's much easier to find a group.

i just wish they'd overhaul the current dungeons and add some new ones that are a bit longer, more challenging, and more geared towards exploration (nothing like the horrors of Arah, though). i mean, i did AC Story on an alt last night and had more fun with that than any fractal run.

oh yeah, i forgot to add that Agony is a really lame addition. let's create a condition to force people who want to do the dungeon to hop on the gear treadmill, just to get gear that negates or limits the condition, thus making it almost pointless. blah.

Edited by jthamind, 08 January 2013 - 05:04 AM.

[Wifflebottom]

Yeah I figured I wouldn't mention the gear treadmill that's another huge negative brought on by fractals, there are plenty of other threads discussing that lol.

[matsif]

fractals are a great idea.  they are horribly implemented.  There is no reason that they should have better drops over other dungeons, and there was no reason for the gear check required after level 10 or whenever agony is introduced.  Most of them are buggier than the other dungeons are with many more exploits than any other dungeon has/had.

I honestly don't like most of them and like the other dungeons a lot more.  And I'm tired of 99% of zones being empty because there no reason to leave LA anymore - run fractals, TP spam, craft, bank, rinse, repeat, all in one city.

[B3aT]

I hate them too, but I think they keep the reward/work ratio as for the rest of the game, their mechanics are easier then hard dungeon paths but harder then CoF for example. And from what I saw the difficulty at higher levels comes with higher reward too ...so is all good. They can easily construct more (easy to implement, no story etc).

I don't think they abandoned old dungeons, they will make more in expansions (proof is that mini dungeons appeared at every event).
A lot more ppl will play them (including me) after the jan fractal update, the good part in this is that everyone will learn to do something well.

[Bloggi]

Well, I don't hate fractals, but don't love them either. It is somewhat frustrating to have had fractals in the last few monthlies, but what I find worse is the WvW kills because I absolutely loathe WvW.

I think fractals are fun. Yes they could get repetitive because we're doing them over and over. It is the rotation and random nature that keeps it somewhat fresh. But the real reason why people are doing it is because of the loot. If they could likewise improve the loot across the board for open world areas, we're likely to see more people there. At the moment, vast expanses of places are so dead it's not even funny. What a complete waste of art, design and effort in these areas, so silent I could hear a pin drop.

[Gilles VI]

Wifflebottom, on 08 January 2013 - 04:29 AM, said:

So is anyone starting to hate fractals? Seriously the way that they've been in the past 3 monthlys, I'm getting tired of them. I feel like Arenanet doesn't want people to play the other dungeons. Sure when they came out they were very fun but they're really getting boring. FoTM is the only dungeon people want to do anymore, not saying it's hard to get a group for other dungeons but I can only do like 1 or 2 runs before someone wants to leave and go do fractals. The news that they're adding even more fractals means that even MORE people will be playing them. I dunno maybe I'm unreasonable but the PvE of a game shouldn't be almost completely engulfed in ONE dungeon in my opinion. It seems that Anet's just abandoning support of their old dungeons to make fractals more popular, I mean why do other dungeons when fractals gives you: gold, exotics/ectos, and ascended gear? *sigh* /rant

TL;DR: I think Fractals got boring and it seems Arenanet is abandoning support of old dungeons in favor Fractals.

• 1,75 month..
  
• I still like them, especially when done with friends/guildies it's very fun.

[matsif]

Gilles VI, on 08 January 2013 - 08:12 AM, said:

• 1,75 month..

they have been in 3 monthlies, despite only being "released" for 1.75 months.  They were tied into the november monthly (hidden until lost shores update), in the december monthly, and now are in the january monthly.  So each month for the past 3 months anyone who wants the monthly bonus has been forced to run the instance.

Edited by matsif, 08 January 2013 - 03:44 PM.

[Gilles VI]

matsif, on 08 January 2013 - 03:43 PM, said:

they have been in 3 monthlies, despite only being "released" for 1.75 months.  They were tied into the november monthly (hidden until lost shores update), in the december monthly, and now are in the january monthly.  So each month for the past 3 months anyone who wants the monthly bonus has been forced to run the instance.

True but if I remember correctly it was about other people only wanting to do fractals for 3 months, which isn't true.

[matsif]

Wifflebottom, on 08 January 2013 - 04:29 AM, said:

...they've been in the past 3 monthlys....

Gilles VI, on 08 January 2013 - 03:46 PM, said:

True but if I remember correctly it was about other people only wanting to do fractals for 3 months, which isn't true.

bolded, I think you missed a few letters in the OP

agreed they haven't even been around for 3 months of total time yet, but january is the 3rd month I've been forced to do them for my monthly karma jugs and coins.

[Gilles VI]

matsif, on 08 January 2013 - 03:51 PM, said:

bolded, I think you missed a few letters in the OP

agreed they haven't even been around for 3 months of total time yet, but january is the 3rd month I've been forced to do them for my monthly karma jugs and coins.

Ah mybad..
Well I feel the same about the WvW part, so I know the feel

On another note, howmany events do I need to do in total?
I do exactly 0 DE's in normal gameplay, so kinda worried about that..

[Izokka]

well...  i just hate when i dc on jade maw -.-

[Cannot See Me]

I thought this post would be from a long time ago, but turns out I was wrong.

Just want to say that it is just simply not true that everyone wants to do fractals. It might be a months or ago (also, fractals have been nearly out for 2 months, not 3 months), but now the population have diverted from it greatly. Go ahead and check gw2lfg right at this instant, you won't have trouble finding any dungeons you want to run, so I just fail to see your complaint.

You hating a fractal is your personal issue, but if fractals are popular, then it means it is more appealing to the majority, and what's wrong with that? Even prior the existance of fractals not all groups stay for all 3 paths, so there are no difference no whatsoever. Again, the complaint is valid dating back a month, but now you have no problem finding any group, so I fail to see where you are coming from.

[Stigma]

Cannot See Me, on 08 January 2013 - 05:48 PM, said:

I thought this post would be from a long time ago, but turns out I was wrong.

Just want to say that it is just simply not true that everyone wants to do fractals. It might be a months or ago (also, fractals have been nearly out for 2 months, not 3 months), but now the population have diverted from it greatly. Go ahead and check gw2lfg right at this instant, you won't have trouble finding any dungeons you want to run, so I just fail to see your complaint.

You hating a fractal is your personal issue, but if fractals are popular, then it means it is more appealing to the majority, and what's wrong with that? Even prior the existance of fractals not all groups stay for all 3 paths, so there are no difference no whatsoever. Again, the complaint is valid dating back a month, but now you have no problem finding any group, so I fail to see where you are coming from.

So the OP hates what many others like? Anyways his argument is invalid as Cannot See Me pointed out... Go to www.gw2lfg.com and you'll see a huge amount of players doing LFG on all dungeons.

Edited by Stigma, 08 January 2013 - 09:05 PM.

[matsif]

Gilles VI, on 08 January 2013 - 03:53 PM, said:

On another note, howmany events do I need to do in total?
I do exactly 0 DE's in normal gameplay, so kinda worried about that..

iirc its 100, which honestly really isn't that bad.  you can easily do like 13 in an hour of running around wayfarer foothills.

[Desild]

Never cared much for fractals. Hence why I don't do fractals, at all.

Don't like it? Don't do it. Maybe Anet will get the memo.

[I'm Squirrel]

Lol. I can't even run FOTM.

Logged in yesterday, got a group for Fractals. And it turns out I wasn't even able to run it because my max FOTM lvl is 3 and the party wanted lvl 10.(I thought they patched this.) Way to give Fractals a chance for new players ANET. /facepalm

It's too ****ing troublesome to increase your max Fractal lvl. I can't believe the morons at ANET even came up with a dungeon system like that.

[Gilles VI]

matsif, on 08 January 2013 - 09:38 PM, said:

iirc its 100, which honestly really isn't that bad.  you can easily do like 13 in an hour of running around wayfarer foothills.

It's much for me
Most DE's I do, are the bonus events in dungeons that count as events..

I, on 08 January 2013 - 09:54 PM, said:

Lol. I can't even run FOTM.

Logged in yesterday, got a group for Fractals. And it turns out I wasn't even able to run it because my max FOTM lvl is 3 and the party wanted lvl 10.(I thought they patched this.) Way to give Fractals a chance for new players ANET. /facepalm

It's too ****ing troublesome to increase your max Fractal lvl. I can't believe the morons at ANET even came up with a dungeon system like that.

Maybe you should learn to read their announcements.
It clearly says "in the end of january patch"

Edited by Gilles VI, 08 January 2013 - 09:54 PM.

[Aetou]

To do the fractal monthly you need to do 7 fractals.  That's one run (3 fractals + Jade Maw?) a fortnight.  While I too am sick of Fractals it really isn't much to have to run them once a week for an hour.  Compared to having to spend time or money going to different zones and finding Jump Puzzle entrances... it's a really low level of involvement for a Monthly.  Dislike of their implementation and the effects are all very valid, but the inclusion in the monthly isn't really a valid complaint - even as somebody who dislikes them the bar is low enough that its better than most of the possible alternatives.