Let's talk about Serpent's Ire META

[LucyFurr.6589]

**So, for anyone that owns the new expansion, you may have heard of the Serpent Ire meta event chain in the Domain of Vabbi. It is divided into 3 phases the 1st part is just killing some vets or higher level of branded monsters that eventually spawns a Branded Forgotten Zealot within the branded area in the map(the easiest part).**

 

_The next part would be the most annoying part, possible the most broken event in the expansion. The squad has to split into 5 points by the Grand Court of Sebelkeh to CC(crowd control) and dps a Zealot. This is the part where 9/10 times the squad fails. The reason being each zealot has an overly-high-tuned breakbar that it takes forever to break it even with full CC utility skills and weapons, by the time you successfully have broken the bar, you ran out of skills to dps with and your left to auto attack for the most part for the next 5-10 seconds until the zealot regains his breakbar. I've tried this meta event several times already a few times within the 1st month of the expansion and many more times the last few days, all resulting in failure. And yes before you ask, i have gone full glass builds on this with top tier meta foods..._

 

**I've been in squads of 30+ - 50+ people and still fail the 2nd part of the event. Ive seen the zealots hp ranging from 45%-90% by the time we ran out of time and fail the event, and never gotten to the 3rd phase since the event always fails. From reading guides, and reading forum posts, the 3rd phase is easier than the 2nd, a bit annoying but doable with the amount of time given.....so basically if you finish the 2nd phase of the event, your pretty much guranteed to finish the whole meta event.**

 

_A few weeks ago Anet updated the loot for this event which gave people more reason to try it again after doing it once for the funerary armor collection, it was effective in lowering the prices of the unique exotic weapons in the trading post, but as soon as those prices spiked down through the floor, the meta was soon forgotten as people can find many more ways to spend their time and farm more gold while enjoying the game and guaranteed loot._

 

**When the haloween event came out, it drew most of the people away from PoF maps into the haloween events. Then came the season 4 living world episode 1, with its new map and new map meta which is way more profitable and almost guaranteed to never fail with enough people doing the events every 2 hours. Now the wintersday has come back, and it did the same thing the haloween event did, which was taking more people from doing the original PoF map meta events.**

 

_Its been 3 months since the PoF expansion came out, i have yet to succesfully finish the Serpent's Ire meta event in Vabbi, one would think that after a few weeks Anet would fix the issue with this meta event and make it more doable for the casual audience that this game has acquired, just like they did with Chak Gerent meta in Tangled Depths in HoT, where they nerfed the boss after an outcry that the boss was too hard, and look at it now, people still do all the HoT map meta's to this day, because they are doable and they are tuned fairly well, yes the rewards maybe be another reason, but not all of us base loot rewards as our reason to enjoy this game._

 

**So there has been 3 big patches since the expansion came out and no changes have been made to make this event more balanced, starting to lose faith that anet will fix it any time soon. I get it that the dev's are probably on holidays, but this is not the 1st forum post about Serpent's Ire, there has been several in the last few months, though nothing was ever changed or addressed by game developers.**

 

~~TL'DR: sorry its long, this part of the game really just depressed me, i dont usually use the forums to post but i finally had to do it for this and sorry i can't put it in one sentence.~~

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

It's pretty terrible. The only way to complete the event is if you have a guild organize at least a half hour before the event begins. That, or get lucky and have 5 competent raid-capable chronobuffers show up.

[Skyavell.9573]

Yeah..........I gave up on this weeks ago, it failed everytime I tried it and promised to not waste another minute on that map until Anet fix their game, good thing I don't care about achievements because I have friends who wasted a lot of time trying to do this for several days and fail.

[Verthurnax.2784]

People still playing in pof maps ?? I finished all in less than a week and never return to it again since it's not meta like hot. Next expansion if it turns out like pof, with no content in the maps at launch i wont do the same mystake again as buy it. And i don't even use mounts at all so wtf i bought this expansion at all...

 

It sucks for all that will try to get any achiev in pof maps where requires alot of players, because they wont make it to bring them in to play. But at same time i am glad this happens since most people asked for this :angry:

[Alves.4931]

The event has been really hard to complete, even when enough people show up (which is very rare at least in europe). It'd be nice if it was toned down a bit because less people will play in PoF maps as the time goes by. Either that or making the event a bit more rewarding somehow...

It's nearly impossible to finish the funerary collection like this

[Silmar Alech.4305]

I know what you are talking about. I tried this meta as well, and a failure rate of 9/10 is literally what I experienced as well: from 10 (faithfully organized) tries, 9 fail. It just happened that on my last try a few days ago it succeeded. But I don't know why it succeeded. It was just like before in all the failed tries. I was absorbed by finding the right rotation between cc and damage as on each try before, but suddenly after about 50% health the break bar of our zealot went down faster than before, and the timer bar stalled at about 20%, so all zealots finally went down without the bomb exploding. I did nothing different than before, and I didn't see anything different from the other players. The squad commander even did less than all the commanders before: he just said: "spread evenly", while the others tried to distribute the players manually by setting squad symbols and moving each squad members into groups. So I still wonder what happened: did Arenanet fix anything? Was it mere luck? Was it because Christmas?

 

For sure, I will not do this event again. Ever. Even if some organization calls me. The collection got its item. Loot is futile, if the event fails anyway.

[Randulf.7614]

Even on a successful it is just a mess of an event. It requires too many players in too small an area causing not only massive fps drops, but you can't even see the 2 final bosses for all the special effects going off. There are good, well designed metas and World Bosses in this game, Serpents Ire is not one of them.

[Kamote.1769]

PoF have map metas contrary to popular belief. Every pof map has one, they are just not as in your face obvious as HoT ones, or as loot centric.

 

I have completed all pof maps on the first week of the expansion as well, but not done every achievement cuz of work and the sheer amount of achievements.

 

Sadly this one has been on my to do list for several weeks now. Its been all failures, but its not like i got a choice, just hoping devs would have toned it down already because as OP said, the devs nerfed Chak Gerent within the first month of HoT, wonder why they overlooked this.

[Sithis.3564]

I wanted to be salty but the Christmas Spirit stopped me.

 

This event is not that hard and that's why they are not fixing it. There is nothing be fixed. If you have problems with it now wait for the Wintersday Event to end.

[Kamote.1769]

Ive tried to do this for weeks, way before wintersday, everytime i see it in lfg, it always fails, and i go ham with the CCs and dps. Problem is i cant carry the average casual who comes to this meta events.

 

It wont change even when wintersday ends because the average player will still not min max and bring the right skills for the fight even when you tell them in squad. Im not being an elitist, just saying how it really is.

 

The only solution is for anet to fix it like they did with chak gerent.

[TheNecrosanct.4028]

I can't say I share the sentiment. I have done the meta several times, all of them successful, with the exception of the first time just after PoF was released and the metas were still being figured out (as far as people were even aware of the metas, because there was a lot of discussion on it early after release since these metas aren't mapwide copy-paste HoT metas, which everyone seemed to expect and is apparently the only "true" definition of meta to some). Not an organized guild, but just the regular LFG way. No major problems with breakbars (not more than usual in an open world meta with random players of unknown skill and knowledge of mechanics). The only problems I have are the major fps drop during the event and the insane clusterfuck of skill effects that completely obscures animations, as usual. But basically it's just a matter of spamming cc skills during the appropriate time and doing as much damage as possible. I'm guessing people who keep failing the event just have bad luck, because if the event itself was truly the problem, everyone would suffer from it. I'm guessing it probably will be toned down at some point, to make it easier for a larger part of the community. I also find that the successful LFG's post well ahead of time, so enough people can join and to explain the different phases and what to do.

[Granada Garuda.8391]

I agree with OP that this meta should be toned down. I'm not the best at this game, yes I'm a casual and I only really play pve but it has not stopped me from enjoying this game. On that note, I have played all the open world bosses of the core game and was really enjoyable. I've gone through a full core game open world completion on my ranger, and gone through the HoT maps as well. I also have done the HoT map meta events and successfully finish them even now.

 

I have also completed the PoF maps and done some bounties which were very fun to do. The metas on the new expansion were difficult to find and even more difficult to find people to do them with. I have joined lfg squads for Serpents' Ire a few times and it always fail, I did not mind I'm sure I will eventually get it but I won't change the way I play this game because this event is asking me to be an elitist. That's the reason I don't do raids. I love the open world game of gw2 it is very casual friendly and should stay that way. I wasn't their when they nerfed chak gerent but I heard about it, they should do that for this meta as well so people will get encouraged to do them.

[Microundeas.4530]

yeah the meta is a bit messy, especially the boss fight you can't see Sh*t.

But the major problem of people not being able to pass the cc faze is the over spread. People need to form 2-3 groups tops, because after one is dead the bar will slow down.

[Friday.9078]

After playing through the PoF story in the first few days after release, I realised that if anything needed to be done, we needed to do it ASAP. I hauled my husbands rear end through everything required for the story, the Griffon and as many achievements as we could within the 1st two weeks. As awesome as the maps are and the various events, it was clear that the place would be almost deserted within a month. I am SO glad we did this! It became clear from the previous maps after HoT that you NEED to get stuff done as fast as possible after release or face this exact problem on under populated maps and large scale events failing for various reasons. Now I go back and enjoy the scenery, learn to fly my Griffon properly, hunt out gathering nodes or farming spots, mess about with random events or, if lucky, will find a bounty squad.

[LucyFurr.6589]

> @"Friday.9078" said:

> After playing through the PoF story in the first few days after release, I realised that if anything needed to be done, we needed to do it ASAP. I hauled my husbands rear end through everything required for the story, the Griffon and as many achievements as we could within the 1st two weeks.

 

Yeah i have been doing that since season 2 of the living world story for the very same reason, that the maps are in jeopardy of being under populated after the 1st 2 weeks of release, and i have managed to do that until the end of season 3. Sadly I was more busy with work than usual when the new expansion came out, also there we're a boat load of achievements to do in PoF and it took a lot of my time as well, nonetheless i should have kept my priorities straight as i had been doing in the past instead of standing in awe as I immersed myself in the expansion the 1st time around(could have done this later). I made a huge mistake on missing out on this on the 1st 2 weeks of release, but hopefully i get lucky and get this done finally one day soon if not well here's to hoping it gets tuned down eventually since no one does them anymore.

 

[Kamote.1769]

Got a shot at this again last night with an organized group, got the zealot on my side at 48% before the timer ran out, had all my utilities and elite skill all CC's, used my weapon CC's as well but the break bar still took forever to break.

 

I cant speak for everyone else in the squad because im sure there will always be a few who do not know the mechanics of this meta, but it should not be that strict since this is an open world event and not a raid. There will always be casuals in these events and it hasnt been a problem through the core game and HoT, and should not be a prpblem althrough PoF.

 

The timer runs out so fast even with an organized group on all 5 marked points. Then as people already mentioned, the phase that you are allowed to attack the zealot is way TOO SHORT.....

[Mea.5491]

> "People still playing in pof maps ?? I finished all in less than a week and never return to it again since it's not meta like hot."

 

> "As awesome as the maps are and the various events, it was clear that the place would be almost deserted within a month"

 

See, this is the main problem. Solo players complained about "too hard" HoT maps and we got this boring single-player content in PoF and rushed team content that is either annoying or gets boring quickly (Bounties). Serpent's Ire feels like it was added in the last moment to please MMO fans, it fails to deliver the quality of HoT metas. Yay for solo players in massively multiplayer games, I guess... I hope they still enjoy their deserted desert. ("Oh I still play and enjoy PoF maps alone" replies incoming). :P

[Kiza.5630]

Are you (and everyone else in this thread who couldn't complete it) on EU servers? I've done it numerous times and can organize it again. I still kinda like the event. Masochism I guess. ;)

 

Only requirements are EU servers, 18:30 or 20:00 CET version (the later is better since the time doesn't clash with Lootawadan) and you must be there 30 mins in advance (can do bounties while waiting).

 

Write me ingame or post/pm here if you're interested. Tomorrow 30th might be a good time.

 

Edit: but keep in mind, that with Wintersday and people being on holiday IRL, it might not be the best time to do it until say, 2nd week of the new year.

[Ayumi Spender.1082]

> @"Mea.5491" said:

> > "People still playing in pof maps ?? I finished all in less than a week and never return to it again since it's not meta like hot."

>

> > "As awesome as the maps are and the various events, it was clear that the place would be almost deserted within a month"

>

> See, this is the main problem. Solo players complained about "too hard" HoT maps and we got this boring single-player content in PoF and rushed team content that is either annoying or gets boring quickly (Bounties). Serpent's Ire feels like it was added in the last moment to please MMO fans, it fails to deliver the quality of HoT metas. Yay for solo players in massively multiplayer games, I guess... I hope they still enjoy their deserted desert. ("Oh I still play and enjoy PoF maps alone" replies incoming). :P

 

Oh, I still play and enjoy the PoF maps alone.

 

With that out of the way... there's only 1 use to Serpents' Ire and it's to get the precursor. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't try and touch that stupid event.

I think many think the same way. I could be wrong, though.

[Mea.5491]

> @"Ayumi Spender.1082" said:

> > @"Mea.5491" said:

> > > "People still playing in pof maps ?? I finished all in less than a week and never return to it again since it's not meta like hot."

> >

> > > "As awesome as the maps are and the various events, it was clear that the place would be almost deserted within a month"

> >

> > See, this is the main problem. Solo players complained about "too hard" HoT maps and we got this boring single-player content in PoF and rushed team content that is either annoying or gets boring quickly (Bounties). Serpent's Ire feels like it was added in the last moment to please MMO fans, it fails to deliver the quality of HoT metas. Yay for solo players in massively multiplayer games, I guess... I hope they still enjoy their deserted desert. ("Oh I still play and enjoy PoF maps alone" replies incoming). :P

>

> Oh, I still play and enjoy the PoF maps alone.

>

> With that out of the way... there's only 1 use to Serpents' Ire and it's to get the precursor. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't try and touch that stupid event.

> I think many think the same way. I could be wrong, though.

 

Yeah, that's exactly why I said "it fails to deliver the quality of HoT metas".

[ThomasC.1056]

> @"Ayumi Spender.1082" said:

> > @"Mea.5491" said:

> > > "People still playing in pof maps ?? I finished all in less than a week and never return to it again since it's not meta like hot."

> >

> > > "As awesome as the maps are and the various events, it was clear that the place would be almost deserted within a month"

> >

> > See, this is the main problem. Solo players complained about "too hard" HoT maps and we got this boring single-player content in PoF and rushed team content that is either annoying or gets boring quickly (Bounties). Serpent's Ire feels like it was added in the last moment to please MMO fans, it fails to deliver the quality of HoT metas. Yay for solo players in massively multiplayer games, I guess... I hope they still enjoy their deserted desert. ("Oh I still play and enjoy PoF maps alone" replies incoming). :P

>

> Oh, I still play and enjoy the PoF maps alone.

>

> With that out of the way... there's only 1 use to Serpents' Ire and it's to get the precursor. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't try and touch that stupid event.

> I think many think the same way. I could be wrong, though.

 

That's the very same with me. I tried that "meta" a dozen times in the last weeks, only to have it fail because "not enough CC"... The whole event is uninteresting : how epic can that be to smash a pillar with all the CC's you've got while watching a countdown prepare to kill you ? The sole puprpose of this is to finish my achievements for funeral armor, and that's all.

 

So, for now, I'm just waiting for it to be nerfed.

[Granada Garuda.8391]

> @"Kiza.5630" said:

> Are you (and everyone else in this thread who couldn't complete it) on EU servers? I've done it numerous times and can organize it again. I still kinda like the event. Masochism I guess. ;)

>

> Only requirements are EU servers, 18:30 or 20:00 CET version (the later is better since the time doesn't clash with Lootawadan) and you must be there 30 mins in advance (can do bounties while waiting).

>

> Write me ingame or post/pm here if you're interested. Tomorrow 30th might be a good time.

>

> Edit: but keep in mind, that with Wintersday and people being on holiday IRL, it might not be the best time to do it until say, 2nd week of the new year.

 

FeelsBadMan I am from NA and kept failing it the last few times I've seen it in lfg and tried it for the past few weeks. Guess I'm a masochist as well....

[LucyFurr.6589]

Yeah i'm from NA as well, had no luck the past few weeks.

[Reverielle.3972]

> @"Microundeas.4530" said:

> yeah the meta is a bit messy, especially the boss fight you can't see kitten.

> But the major problem of people not being able to pass the cc faze is the over spread. People need to form 2-3 groups tops, because after one is dead the bar will slow down.

 

So spreading out into four groups is actually a mistake? This is very handy to know (and makes sense in light of the slowing down of the bar), thank you.

[Kiza.5630]

> @"Reverielle.3972" said:

> So spreading out into four groups is actually a mistake? This is very handy to know (and makes sense in light of the slowing down of the bar), thank you.

 

But the first, second and third ones are very hard to kill this way and it only works if the group can reliably break the bar. If you have 50% who don't even equip CC this method is going to fail. It's more suited for very organized groups. I ever only used LFG for this, so completely random group. It works more reliably to form five groups. If you have a subgroup that cannot break their bar at all, they will still be able to do _some_ dmg to it when (if) all other four are broken. Five groups need a full squad though.

 

Can't help with NA sorry. :/ If you have a comm tag (or friend with it), give it a shot yourself! I would suggest the five subgroup version. Be there 45 mins in advance and find a map with no other commander, best to chose a time slot in the evening and not one where night starts 15 mins after the zealots event began. It will attract less players because of Palawadan. Put it into LFG at least 30 mins before the event and use a description like "Serpents' Ire meta organization. You must bring CC to this, ask questions before" and always include the rest of the map. Most important part: remind them constantly to equip cc skills. It may sound annoying, but I think that's actually the key. Be persistent. ;) If you maintain a friendly tone and talk a lot, ask every once in a while if everyone knows what to do, it rarely fails. The key is communication, because sometimes players barely know how CC really works.