The limited preview a few fansites and press had last week for Guild Wars 2 was run by Leif Chappelle. He was part of the team that designed the new path to Twilight Arbor, but the team had already cut its teeth on the Aetherblade Retreat dungeon. Chappelle’s dungeon design experience stemmed from the Molten Alliance dungeon. This was a pretty good start to creating a team that would make the level 80 dungeon path for Twilight Arbor.
For some fans the decision to make another path would come at too great a cost because the new path replaced the much reviled forward/up path. Of course now to some the lovingly named TAFU (Twilight Arbor Forward Up) was the best dungeon path in the game. Chappelle already addresses these concerns with diplomatic aplomb on the official forums; although he acknowledges that some fans will not be happy regardless.
Getting back to the content (and preview) the dungeon is created so that the encounters prior to the bosses provide meaning. Chappelle wanted encounters to build on themes and mechanics. The dungeon is also encounter gated so running past a group of wurms, for example, simply won’t happen. We only saw one boss, but it is very reminiscent of the final boss in the Molten Alliance dungeon with some serious differences.
I won’t go too much in to spoilers (check out these previews for more of that: The Pale Tree, GuildMag, GW2Hub, Dulfy), but I do want to note that this path has some serious ties to the Living World. Namely the current super-villain Scarlet is the one gunning for the Nightmare Tree with the help of her Aetherblade faction. She also is making ties with the Nightmare Court too. However unlike the aforementioned Living World dungeons this path is permanent. Chappelle teased that the path’s lore was designed in such a way that it would make sense even if the Living World moved on.
The next Guild Wars 2 bi-week is going to be focused on dungeons, and for this period the Twilight Assault path will have increased rewards that will get reduced after the next update. Be sure to make good use of the new LFG tool in game (press “Yâ€) if you need help with the party. Now to wait for those lovely patch notes.
–Ravious
does anyone know… are these key-fragments that drop outside the dungeon permanent too? And will this concept be expanded to other dungeons as well?
Sounds permament because they are used to access end-of-dungeon activity chests. I don’t know how long they will drop outside the dungeon though. I would expect accelerated drop rates for the next two weeks outside though.
can you clarify what you mean with end-of-dungeon activity chests?
Sure after the dungeon is beaten there are 5 soloable activities that can be completed. These activities each have a chest associated with them that can only be opened with the keys from the key fragments. You get credit for each one done by the party, and there is an achievement for doing all 5 in one run.
interesting… so you don’t need a group to get to all 5 activities, or do you mean you need a group but can go offroad to solo these?
So is there an extra path from the lobby to all these 5 chests/activities or are those along the path of the group-content?
You don’t need a group. You can do all 5 by yourself if you want, but you will get credit for those your group chooses to do. Make sure if you intend to do them you communicate beforehand so you can be the instance owner.
These are at the end of the dungeon so if anything it sounds like they split off from the last room.
so you need a group to get there in the first place. It sounded more like a activity you can do entirely on your own when no one of your friends is online :(
“The dungeon is also encounter gated so running past a group of wurms, for example, simply won’t happen.”
Ohhh this makes me happy. I hate skipping mobs D:
I agree. Trash should have function other than to “slow” the dungeon down. If it doesn’t, then it’s not fun and shouldn’t be there.
“Trash” ( a term I loathe) should be there because what you call a “dungeon” is its home or its base or its place of work. There should be absolutely no consideration to whether you, as a player, can “skip” it or have to kill it. You should be able to use the tools at your disposal to conceal your presence or sneak past if you can, or to befuddle the creatures’ thoughts so they don’t notice or remember you. Failing that, you can fight your way in.
There’s an extremely simple way to prevent groups just running through and avoiding trash mobs in dungeons: don’t allow dungeon mobs to leash. At all. If you run past things and they spot you, they stay with you until you deal with your incompetence or bad luck.
What was lost, eh? What was lost.
Now that you mention it, this is what made one of me favorite mmo dungeons ever great. Yet instanced dungeons strength is in their story and relatively well tuned bosses, so I can understand how they get the ‘trash’ name. But really miss a good un-instanced dungeon with hardermobs the deeper you go, clearing mob trains for lowbies as you descend.
This update has me interested in coming back to GW2 for a spell.
Definitely agree with the no leashing. If that’s not possible it would be nice to see a dungeon where the inhabitants (who the players are specifically told to kill) seem easily skippable (small aggro range)… only when you get locked into the final boss chamber the first thing he does is summon every one of them that’s still alive to his location – forcing you to fight them all at the same time.
One thing I like about the way GW2 scales you down to the dungeon level, that I hadn’t really thought of til now, is how it makes it impossible for absurdities like running past a mob 2m away without them noticing you, just because you’re higher level.
I like the ‘summon remaining trash’ idea, although perhaps on a timer, so it’s like a sort of soft enrage. Raises the stakes a bit if you skip trash, but if your DPS is high enough it could pay off.
Mind you, that path often leads to elitism and noob-calling, so perhaps it might not work.
WoW, I have not been in touch with GW2 lately, but this sounds promissing. I might just go and check it out. If not for anything else, then for LFG tool alone.