[SUGGESTION] Precursor Collections made so progress is blocked?! What?!

[Aechidna.3084]

I'm making Meteorlogicus through the collection. My second go after making Bifrost and I have a HUGE beef with how the 3rd collection is done. The collection in and of itself isn't horrible (even though taking all the temples in Orr seems a bit excessive, but whatever), but there is 1 GAPING issue in the whole thing. The first on is the need in the collection to kill Champion Frainn in Timberline Falls. This event has been bugged for over TWO YEARS. ANet knows that it is, as there have been comments on Reddit posts from 2 years ago that they are aware and working on a fix... Well, the fact that I've spent the past 3 days trying desperately to get this piece of the collection and have spoken to people who have been trying to get it for weeks speaks for the fact that "working on a fix" is a biiiiit of a stretch. I've even seen posts of people having to just submit a ticket and had the item sent by ANet because they just can't get it any other way. As far as I know, this particular bit is part of 2 or 3 precursor collections, so it not working as intended is pretty messed up if you ask me... I mean I don't particularly care if an event is bugged here or there, it's a big game, it happens. What I take issue with is that an event that hasn't worked correctly for YEARS is part of a significant progression such as a legendary collection and no one can be arsed to fix it. I mean the collection achievements are quite extensive already, I'm sure it wouldn't be to horribly difficult to either swap it out for a different item in an event that's NOT bugged or just remove that one item altogether and call it good. Either way, something needs to be done here!

 

Tl;dr: For the love of all things holy and sane, please remove the Champion Frainn trophy item from precursor collections or fix the event. Like yesterday. Thanks.

[Ayrilana.1396]

Every time that I have gone to do this event chain after it's been claimed to be bug, I see no problems. Every other time that I'm on the map, I see it working just fine. Just not I went to a map (IP 52.73.137.253) and it was working as it should as I progressed it to the champ without any issues.

 

Now I'm not saying that it doesn't bug out as it could very well have done so for you. The problem is that you're not giving any specifics for Anet to go on. Saying it's broke doesn't help Anet figure out what's going on and especially if it getting stalled is a rare occurrence. Other times that people have reported something as broken, I'm not saying this is your case, is that they do not understand the meta and prerequisite events.

[Aechidna.3084]

The NPCs die in the course of the event and then the event fails. They do not reset and just stand there dying and the event does not reset either. I don't need to specify for Anet, because they are well aware of what happens, as it's been beaten to death on forums, Reddit, wiki, etc. The pre can't happen because the NPCs are stuck in the even I need, that's not even active anymore. But if you're EU, I would appreciate it if you could taxi me onto that map so I can get it!

[Ayrilana.1396]

Well the NPC’s I went to this morning were dead and I had to revive them. It could be specific location(s), where if they’re killed, it’ll stall the event.

 

Sorry not EU otherwise I would.

[Aechidna.3084]

I've seen posts about it in multiple different areas, so I don't know if it's location, or just if they die too quick (sometimes it's an issue when people farm the area)...

This is one of the posts I found about it (from 2 years ago) with ANet response, and it describes my issue and what everyone else I've talked to also sees down to a T. The thing that irks me most is that it's known to be an issue and nothing is being done about it. Like I said, if it's some nonsense event, whatever, i can deal, but not for a legendary collection...

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @"Aechidna.3084" said:

> The first on is the need in the collection to kill Champion Frainn in Timberline Falls. This event has been bugged for over TWO YEARS.

 

Except it's not _always_ bugged. The problem isn't even unique to this particular event, it's a generic one: when an event that is part of a chain stalls, the game doesn't have any way to self-adjust or even for us to alert devs that it's stalled (so they can manually fix it).

 

However, regardless of the existence of the stalling, it remains possible to complete the requirement, as evidenced by the many, many people who have completed it. Keeping in mind that you only have to kill Frainn once...

 

* Park a character in the path of the event chain (ideally, next to where Frainn spawns).

* If you're lucky, the event is up (this has happened to me 2 of 8 attempts in the last 8 months) and voila

* If not, as you arrive in the zone, the upper right corner of your screen will show the current status of the chain. Check to see where and you can either move to the relevant location or wait. If the chain is up, great: you'll get your opportunity to kill Frainn.

* If the event is stalled, as happens rather too frequently, leave the map and try again later. Eventually, it will be up.

 

To increase the chances that the event chain is working, try at these times:

* Immediately after a game update (whether minor or major); the map is completely reset.

* Shortly after daily reset; that's the best chance of a fresh map.

* On any day that the 4-event daily is active in Timberline Falls.

* During "Week 4" of the [map reward cycle](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Timberline_Falls#Map_bonus_rewards) (when Timberline is among the most profitable)

* After reset on weekends, when guilds might be over-populating the map for missions (2MULT bounty, Scratch Sentry challenge)

 

For what it's worth, in the four attempts I've made (for my own legendary collections and to help friends), it's never taken me longer than four days and only one of those attempts was close to a game update. Aside from the initial troubleshooting, I just parked a toon, popped it once or twice a day, and went on with everything else I needed to do (or with other activities).

Obviously, your mileage will vary.

 

Good luck.

 

****

##### Further Reading

 

**Events**

* [Defeat the Grawl Commander](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Defeat_the_grawl_commander) (first event in the chain)

* [Escort the Order of Whispers](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Escort_the_Order_of_Whispers_team_to_the_grawl_camp)

* [Put a Stop to the Mighty Oouo](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Put_a_stop_to_the_Mighty_Oouo) (final & qualifying event)

 

**Locations**

* [White Paper Hill](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/White_Paper_Hill) [&BEICAAA=]

* [Guilty Tears](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guilty_Tears) [&BE0CAAA=]

* [The Might Oouo](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Great_Oouo) [&BDwCAAA=]

[Khisanth.2948]

> @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> > @"Aechidna.3084" said:

> > The first on is the need in the collection to kill Champion Frainn in Timberline Falls. This event has been bugged for over TWO YEARS.

>

> Except it's not _always_ bugged. The problem isn't even unique to this particular event, it's a generic one: when an event that is part of a chain stalls, the game doesn't have any way to self-adjust or even for us to alert devs that it's stalled (so they can manually fix it).

>

> However, regardless of the existence of the stalling, it remains possible to complete the requirement, as evidenced by the many, many people who have completed it. Keeping in mind that you only have to kill Frainn once...

>

> * Park a character in the path of the event chain (ideally, next to where Frainn spawns).

> * If you're lucky, the event is up (this has happened to me 2 of 8 attempts in the last 8 months) and voila

> * If not, as you arrive in the zone, the upper right corner of your screen will show the current status of the chain. Check to see where and you can either move to the relevant location or wait. If the chain is up, great: you'll get your opportunity to kill Frainn.

> * If the event is stalled, as happens rather too frequently, leave the map and try again later. Eventually, it will be up.

>

> To increase the chances that the event chain is working, try at these times:

> * Immediately after a game update (whether minor or major); the map is completely reset.

> * Shortly after daily reset; that's the best chance of a fresh map.

> * On any day that the 4-event daily is active in Timberline Falls.

> * During "Week 4" of the [map reward cycle](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Timberline_Falls#Map_bonus_rewards) (when Timberline is among the most profitable)

> * After reset on weekends, when guilds might be over-populating the map for missions (2MULT bounty, Scratch Sentry challenge)

>

> For what it's worth, in the four attempts I've made (for my own legendary collections and to help friends), it's never taken me longer than four days and only one of those attempts was close to a game update. Aside from the initial troubleshooting, I just parked a toon, popped it once or twice a day, and went on with everything else I needed to do (or with other activities).

> Obviously, your mileage will vary.

>

> Good luck.

>

> ****

> ##### Further Reading

>

> **Events**

> * [Defeat the Grawl Commander](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Defeat_the_grawl_commander) (first event in the chain)

> * [Escort the Order of Whispers](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Escort_the_Order_of_Whispers_team_to_the_grawl_camp)

> * [Put a Stop to the Mighty Oouo](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Put_a_stop_to_the_Mighty_Oouo) (final & qualifying event)

>

> **Locations**

> * [White Paper Hill](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/White_Paper_Hill) [&BEICAAA=]

> * [Guilty Tears](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guilty_Tears) [&BE0CAAA=]

> * [The Might Oouo](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Great_Oouo) [&BDwCAAA=]

 

There is also the ley line anomaly event that also shows up there.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @"Khisanth.2948" said:

> There is also the ley line anomaly event that also shows up there.

 

Right! I completely forgot. That's probably why I managed to get in so many maps where the chain was live.

 

The Timberline [defeat the ley anomaly](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Defeat_the_Ley-Line_Anomaly_to_disperse_its_destructive_energy_before_it_overloads) spawns at 05:20, 11:20, 17:20, 23:20 server time every day, so right after (or during) is probably a good time to try to find a fresh map.

 

To find out what time that is locally for you, you can (a) adjust the time on your mini map to show server time or (b) type e.g. "05:20 UTC" into your browser and your default search engine will convert for you.

 

 

[Aechidna.3084]

Let me clarify a few points:

 

While what Khisanth said helps to troubleshoot, I have a big issue with making that my job, and here's why:

 

Any event can stall and bug, right? Ok, sure. I don't mind. Really! I'll come back in a few hours or the next day and try again then, not a problem.

What I take issue with is that the event doesn't reset! It's been 4 days and I'm still landing on the same IP, with the NPCs in the same spot on the side of the mountain. And sorry, not everyone has the ability to commit to logging in at a specific time to attempt to MAYBE get a new map or park a toon there for months in order to get an opportunity.

 

Trying to find a workaround in the first month or so of an issue as a player, fine. Not 2 years later. That's like if I were to take my car to the mechanic, pay him to fix my busted headlight, only to have him send me home with it still broken and tell me to tape flashlights to my hood.

 

Here's a couple of suggestions that would take a good programmer at ANet not even a week to implement:

1. Close older maps. Don't just rely on the number trigger. If the ley anomaly event typically triggers a new map pop, give the game a simple if -> then line of code looking at the age of the map. I.e. if ip age x is greater than ip age y, then pop map transfer/close in order to make the busted event reset.

2. Same could be done just for the event. Make it check at the same time as the anomaly pops, for example. When the code runs to start the anomaly, add a line, if event successful since last check, do nothing, if not successful, reset NPCs and event progress to start.

 

I get that PoF and all the issues in living world, plus all the new skins and such are important, but that shouldn't mean other aspects of the game should be ignored, especially if it's known, there are simple solutions to be had, and it's a rather significant piece that hinders progress for people. Put that new backpack on the backburner for a day and make sure the game functions at the core before covering it with pretty.