Which Living World Maps do you return to often? Why?

[Hevoskuuri.3891]

I regularly visit all of them for various reasons, usually for gathering the map currency, but Ember Bay, Bitterfrost and Lake Doric are among my favourite maps in the entire game. I absolutely love their sceneries and map design, it's relaxing to just wander around in those maps with no specific purpose. Especially the circus/sloth area in EB, the hot springs area in BF, and just Lake Doric in general appeal to me for some reason.

 

The S4 maps are bigger and more detailed, but I somehow don't like them as much. I don't really even know why; maybe they are more hollow content-wise, or maybe it's the fact that 4 out of 5 now are in the desert and the diversity between them is almost nonexistent compared to S3 maps. Anet has done many things better this season, such as more meaningful masteries, new mounts and armor and weapon sets, and much improved storytelling, but the maps have been a disappointment to me thus far. Istan is a good farm, and Jahai has plenty of fun content, but that's it. Sandswept, Kourna and Thunderhead felt empty and uninteresting to me, and I rarely visit those maps unless I want an achievement or map currencies or whatever. I hope Episode 6 gives us a map that I can *love* again, like I loved all of the S3 maps.

[Dami.5046]

All of season 3 bar draconis mons. Can't stand that map. mainly because i'm a trinket freak and both my accounts need 'em. Not so many in season 4. I used to do as many dailies as possible, although i do just pop into Jahai now and again for the feels and I love Thunderhead Peaks. I go into istan mainly to so the chests before they get nerfed and was going to start to farm a bit there until the selfish got their way.

[Biff.5312]

I spend a LOT of time in the LS3 maps, getting trinkets/backs for my many alts. I also just like the maps/content.

[altermaven.7385]

I personally frequent Bitterfrost Frontier, you can get a good chunk of elder wood and the winterberries are useful for the foods you can make, as well as the fact I have max Karmic Retribution (T3) in the area, so it's a good go-to for karma. Get some karma boosts, and events/daily hearts give me a sizeable boost. But all of LW S3 have great accessability to ascended trinkets -- with some weeks' investment, you can potentially get a full set of back, amulet, 2x ring and 2x accessory as long as you keep up your unbound magic count.

[zealex.9410]

None after im done with the story, achieves etc. Maybe Istan prob if i feel like doing a meta or farming gold, tho i find the hots metas superior on the former.

[otto.5684]

I do a couple of LWS3 maps and sand swept isle.

[Zola.6197]

The one I’ve returned to most is probably Silverwastes and Siren’s Landing. Most living world maps I haven’t returned to more than a few times, but I’m also fairly casual and tend to be most active when new content drops.

[Blur.3465]

Siren's Landing Domain of Kourna and Thunderhead Peaks.

**Siren's Landing** - it's visually most appealing to me and I like to hop there just to speak to the magic vendor and get stuff. I also love to roam the area.

 

**Domain of Kourna** - visually lovely, I love that 'dimmed' atmosphere and falling...ash? Also love the meta event there!

 

**Thunderhead Peaks** - music, visuals, dwarven tombs, ruins. Absolutely love these parts. Everything is great except the branded parts where it gets all messy and chaotic for eyes too.

 

EDIT: Messed up the names for Siren's Landing and Siren's Reef, oops! Edited to Siren's Landing now ^^

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

To be fair, I don't visit _any_ old map in the game regularly. I can only do meta events so many times before I feel like I've done that enough. When Draconis Mons came out, I loved it, practicing my Friendly Neighborhood Spidy Skills. But after fulfilling the requirements of the everlasting collection and repeating its hearts for weeks, I'm done. The same is happening with Thunderhead: fun map, lots to explore. But since there's only one source for the jewels, it means re-re-re-repeating the same blessed events over and over and... well you get the idea.

 

But it's not any worse for Living World. Dungeons can lose their lustre and the "acclaimed" maps of Istan and Auric Basin wore me out long before people figured out how to turn them into the most lucrative farms in the game.

 

tl;dr stuff gets old for some of us, regardless of anything a game company can do

[TheOrlyFactor.8341]

Bitterfrost Frontier but that's out of equipment necessity rather than wanting to go back. It's the only map that sells Ascended aquabreathers. Yes, I know, it's not really necessary since there's not really any maps that have good underwater content but when I work on getting a character fully Ascended, I get all of their gear Ascended (except for underwater weapons because underwater combat doesn't have as much of a presence in game as land combat does; Exotics work good enough).

 

In fact, I can say the same for pretty much most/all LWS3 maps. I revisit them out of necessity/for Ascended trinkets, not because I want to go back to them.

[Zhaneel.9208]

Haven't played in a while, thinking of coming back for the Lunar Event (not likely) and catching up on the storyline (more likely). But the old Norn zones with windswept icy landscapes and Ascalon are probably my favorites.

[Orion Templar.4589]

I liked Draconic Mons a lot, but after working toward Aurora I got a bit burned out with it and haven't been back as much lately. I'm at Thunderhead Peaks a lot now, but I'll have to wait and see if it has lasting attraction once the next new map is out. I do tend to go back to Domain of Kourna quite a bit. I like how if you go along the frontlines area there is always an event or two going on. I like the caches that aren't based on mining/gathering/logging. I like the meta that cycles quickly and is driven by how quickly people want to donate parts and take down pylons rather than being tied to a specific clock time. I like the griffon courses and beetle course.

[Peureki.3647]

Surprisingly enough, **Domain of Kourna** is where I spend more of my time. I love to farm events for fun and there's always an event going on in Kourna. Loot is good if you know which event actually gives loot. If some of the Kourna event's mobs could drop loot (looking at you Choya defense, Joko loyalists, cannon defenses), the map would be almost perfect for what it is. Probably the best map if I wanted to solo.

 

Overall though, I do spend all of my time in all of the living story maps. It mostly depends on my mood. Sometimes I may be feeling some Bloodstone Fen and Ember Bay. Other days, I'll be feeling Sandswept or Jahai. Even some days, I'll spend a good amount of times doing the events in Bitterfrost. Each map have their own niche.

[fixit.7189]

the only lw zones i go back to is SW and Istan b/c they are about the only maps in all of GW2 that have active, large groups playing together at all hours of the day: i can get into the action quickly while also getting nice rewards. most other lw maps are totally empty and not worth going to unless i need mats for ascended trinkets.

[notebene.3190]

Because I took off about 15 months shortly after HoT released, I spent a 'lot' of time at all of them before PoF hit. That was a crazy 10 months from about Dec to the following late Sept PoF release!

 

The past years, since things have died down and I've (mostly) gotten every ascended accessory or other goody I want, one that stands out is Bloodstone Fen. I have a character parked there that does 3-4 (depending on if I happen to be there when Hab pops, and there are people doing it) dailies each day. I have way too many stacks of the resource, and nothing to do with them, but I 'really' enjoy the gliding in that zone and the gliding combat skills. It's still a lot of fun for me.

 

I still need the last PoF resources, so I have one character that does a heart there each day. I really like the refuge, and the Shat event there, and will possibly put that back in my rotation if/when Thunderhead dies down, but I also really am enjoying the Thunderhead zone and metas and events and hearts and dailies, so who knows. :)

[Rhyse.8179]

These are literally the only LS zones I ever go back to. I can't remember the last time I went back to another one after I completed the story. Presented in order:

 

1) Bloodstone Fen: Still the most fun LW map. Dailies are done in 30 minutes, the gliding stuff is awesome, the fights have just the right amount of challenge to them. I like this zone a lot. As a bonus, Bloodstone trinkets are awesome - being able to reset the stats later has saved me so much grinding for gear sets. And bank space.

 

2) Silverwastes: I still go back and do the RIBA thing whenever I'm bored and just messing around. If I'm going to waste time mindlessly killing as many things as possible, may as well make some gold doing it. And it's much more chill then Istan.

 

3) Sandswept Isles: Best place to get POF stat trinkets. Not a great zone, not a bad zone either.

 

4) Bitterfrost Frontier: Hate this zone, but the winterberries are still the best way to get ascended trinkets in a hurry.

 

5) Istan: The Farm. Cuz when you want to farm, this is where to do it. It's terrible, repetitive, and soul destroying, but you'll get rich.

[Aaralyna.3104]

In general maps I revisit most are maps with fun metas and worldbosses (I'm not in it for getting rich but it needs to give me fun and at least some loot so I feel I did something that day). Main hot maps for metas + jahai bluffs for shatterer, thunderhead for its metas, lw3 ones for trinkets, siren's for wood gather. All maps for achievements (sadly ppl started deserting jahai so I'm walking into a wall here for my requiem on the rift event, dang ibogas that don't let me solo the event). I do honestly like all pof living world maps but theres just no activity of players (the metas arent rewarding enough to get ppl to do them constantly). Same goes for pof main maps. Serpents Ire ain't my thing... I don't like that branded as surface for meta.

[Infusion.7149]

Right now all efforts on getting diviner's gear so **Thunderhead Peaks**

 

**Bitterfrost Frontier** : winterberries are good for viper/marauder/trailblazer/commander's/minstrel's gear (back,ring,accessory), aquabreather. It's a character-based timegate with minimum guaranteed drop rate

**Ember Bay** : petrified wood from reward track traded in for accessory (viper/minstrel's/marauder/commander's)

**Bloodstone Fen**: can stat swap bloodstone backpack , amulet, & ring and offers viper/minstrel's/marauder/commander's

**Sandswept Isles**: diflourite for harrier's/grieving I obtain from the reward track

**Silverwastes**: only to open HoT accountbound bags on lvl 30 or 50 character

 

Thunderhead peaks did something well in that the branded masses pretty much are guaranteed per node. Granted the collection takes many of them (the insignia and inscription require 25 to 50 each).

 

If the minimum drop rate from the nodes were raised to one such that the RNG weren't so high you'd have multiple effects. The first is that more people would play support classes with diviner's, harrier, or other such stats. The second is that you'd see more people on the maps even if for brief stints.

[Eekasqueak.7850]

Sandswept isles, bloodstone fen and Siren's Landing are the less I suppose popular ones I return to often. I just like how they're setup and I get a lot of flax, karma, volatile magic, bloodstone dust, unbound magic, elder wood, etc

[AlexVv.3965]

Domain of Istan

[Cyninja.2954]

Primarily Tangled Depths meta 1-2 times per week (at 20/30 Chak Eggs for my 4th legi armor) followed by Auric Basin basin meta. Both are still fun and lucrative and who knows, maybe I'll get a lucky super rare drop.

 

Istan occasionally but not more than 1-2 times per week.

 

Currently Thunderhead Keep, but almost done with the collection and ascended skins (4-5 days off being absolutely done).

 

In the past Bitterfrost and some of the LWS3 maps. Not any more though since I have all home ism stance nodes and stuff just piles up.

 

All in all not really running open world content that much. I don't farm since daily fractals take a care of all my gold needs.

[Khalisto.5780]

I dont, since istan farm was nerfed.

 

I do go back to timberline Falls, as I find the place beautiful and if I could I'd build a house there.

[Castigator.3470]

I often visit Sandswept Isles, see how Atholma is doing and grab vegetables from the farms. One day I will get cabbages without Kian getting mad at me.

[thehipone.6812]

Ember bay is a fun "murder spree" type map where you can tune out and just mow down destroyers to end up with some vicious claws and lodestones. Bonus points for the petrified wood for accessories for alts.

 

Sandswept is a great gathering + murder spree map too.

[Deepcuts.9740]

I do not return to any of them after the initial launch and completing most achievements.