Please allow map completion of Dragon Stand w/o meta

[Exillian.8127]

Ever since Drizzlewood was released the map's dead everytime I try to do the meta. There isn't enough people when I joined to do the meta and who knows how many more in the future when the new maps/updates come with better farming.

[Hannelore.8153]

Dragon's Stand isn't done on its own anymore, it follows the TD->AB->DS meta train. You need to start at Tangled Depths, about a half hour before, and make sure you get into a squad, and then you'll need 2-3 hours of free time to progress to the end of DS.

 

The best time to do it is immediately after daily reset, because everyone's getting their gemstones.

[Taril.8619]

If I wanna do DS, I usually wait until I see parties for it pop up in the LFG tool. Since then I know that the meta is actually active.

 

Ideally, you'd want to see a top, middle and bottom squad to ensure that it actually completes.

[killermanjaro.5670]

The problem I could see is that this would likely take far more work than you'd think. Just disabling / removing the gates would let you explore the map, but would break the meta and require parts of the meta to be reworked. For example the phase 'hold the area while the pact prepares to breach' wouldn't make sense if you could just walk through normally, any npc dialogue reffering to the tower gates would make no sense either and need changing, in all languages. That phase of the meta is essential as it's the holding check required to trigger the next phase of the meta once all 3 lanes are ready, if they removed the events tied to the gates they'd have to rework an alternative, plus make sure any other events tied to/triggering to /from it, then still functioned properly. Also if the gates aren't there then escorting dolyaks to the gates doesn't even make sense, so the whole design of the meta would need looking at for it to make any logic again. There are ways around it like having the gates shut once an event near them starts, but again it means reordering the sequences of events and their trigger conditions etc, then repeatedly testing them to make sure nothings broken, and I still don't think the meta would make sense if you're escorting seige dolyaks to something that isn't there and only appears when you get close. From memory the big updrafts in the final area to get to the back of the map don't turn on till the boss is killed either, so players without mounts wouldn't get the last map completion bits till the boss is done anyway, so again there are things in the final area that would need looking at and reworking too.

 

Tl:DR - Basically this would be a lot of time and work, increase the risk of causing new bugs/issues or breaking the meta which currently works fine, plus further time to test to make sure changes haven't broken anything. All just so a handful of poeple can access a few bits for map completion without having to do the meta, which is still frequently done and simply requires a little planning by looking at when the meta starts and making sure you join an LFG squad ready for it. Incidently the time limit till map reset gives bucket loads of time to get it done, so even if you arrive into a fresh map with 30mins gone and nobody there it's still comfortably doable if a few people tag up on the LFG and get it going, late attempts of DS maps on the LFG still get filled pretty quickly.

[Tails.9372]

Want to get more people in? Well there has always been an easy solution for that: make the map more rewarding. I always felt like Dragon Stand is extremely unrewarding given the amount of time you have to commit for it. The reward doesn't even have to be "gold" (although gold usually works), just add an aura infusion obtainable by both dropping it from the end chest and it being purchasable from the NPC vendor that appears after the meta for HoT currencies. That would get people in if the aura looks good enough.

[Teratus.2859]

Havent done DS exploration in a good while.. anyone know how much mounts can break about the map for that?

Unless there are hard barriers preventing it I would assume Skyscale can just fly over most of the roadblocks that prevent map completion.. if anyone can confirm that.

[Taril.8619]

> @"Teratus.2859" said:

> Havent done DS exploration in a good while.. anyone know how much mounts can break about the map for that?

> Unless there are hard barriers preventing it I would assume Skyscale can just fly over most of the roadblocks that prevent map completion.. if anyone can confirm that.

 

You can do up until P3 of the meta. The passages leading to that and thus beyond are blocked off and have invisible walls preventing going over.

 

In addition, some of the side exploration paths only open up when the meta progresses to unlock the doors leading to them with no other way to get to them.

 

Essentially, in order to do map completion, you **need** to get the meta to the final boss (Possibly beat it, I haven't explored that area enough to see what updrafts are available during the fight for getting the stuff around the fight arena)

[Khisanth.2948]

It would be more convenient but getting DS done is pretty simple ...

 

Load into DS => Is the meta actively being done?

-> yes => join in

-> no => look at timer and return after that amount of time +/- 10 minutes => go to -> yes

 

> @"Taril.8619" said:

> > @"Teratus.2859" said:

> > Havent done DS exploration in a good while.. anyone know how much mounts can break about the map for that?

> > Unless there are hard barriers preventing it I would assume Skyscale can just fly over most of the roadblocks that prevent map completion.. if anyone can confirm that.

>

> You can do up until P3 of the meta. The passages leading to that and thus beyond are blocked off and have invisible walls preventing going over.

>

> In addition, some of the side exploration paths only open up when the meta progresses to unlock the doors leading to them with no other way to get to them.

>

> Essentially, in order to do map completion, you **need** to get the meta to the final boss (Possibly beat it, I haven't explored that area enough to see what updrafts are available during the fight for getting the stuff around the fight arena)

 

There is no need to beat it. At least not with a skyscale. I haven't tried getting up to the last PoI with just gliding. I finished DS on my last two characters in the middle(more like beginning ...) of the boss fight. You'll probably need itzel poison mastery as well since the vista area looks like it might be poisonous. All the rest of the area can be accessed without the meta and without any mount. That was changed quite a while ago. On release some of the areas with the HPs did require finishing the meta.

[Taril.8619]

> @"Khisanth.2948" said:

> All the rest of the area can be accessed without the meta and without any mount. That was changed quite a while ago. On release some of the areas with the HPs did require finishing the meta.

 

Funny, 'cause I went around recently and there were places it was literally impossible to get through, even with mounts.

[Khisanth.2948]

> @"Taril.8619" said:

> > @"Khisanth.2948" said:

> > All the rest of the area can be accessed without the meta and without any mount. That was changed quite a while ago. On release some of the areas with the HPs did require finishing the meta.

>

> Funny, 'cause I went around recently and there were places it was literally impossible to get through, even with mounts.

 

**All the rest** meaning excluding stuff in the final area. =_=

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

Dragon Stand activity has remain unchanged since I started playing 3 years ago. Perhaps even more groups are willing to get in there since the introduction of mounts. You have to either play in the right times during day/night or wait for the organized groups weekend runs.

[Silvercyclone.1462]

It would make sense to have the gates opened while the event isnt going on and close them during the event. That way it will allow players to do map when they want instead of during the events

[Khisanth.2948]

> @"Silvercyclone.1462" said:

> It would make sense to have the gates opened while the event isnt going on and close them during the event. That way it will allow players to do map when they want instead of during the events

 

That also makes a bit more sense since the stuff going down the lane is supposed to be spawned from those towers so they should have the doors open until it comes under attack.