Guild Wars 2 - Finding The Lost Shores

So my addiction to Guild Wars 2 continues to grow. I still play almost every day, hoping to find rare items or hidden secrets that have been just out of my grasp, and mixed in with all that, ArenaNet keep releasing new content before I can clear the old stuff; I still have three dungeons I haven’t even tried yet! This time it’s The Lost Shores. The event seemed like it would be the best thing to happen to a dedicated GW2 player so far - a new island, a one-time event that would “change the face of Tyria for good,” new enemies and crafting recipes, and a new scaling, multi-levelled, multi-tiered dungeon. Unfortunately the weekend long event left me feeling a little cold toward my current favourite game.

To begin with, strange things happened, a new beast known as the ‘Karka’ appeared and started wreaking havoc in Lion’s Arch, the place most players gather to trade, craft and socialise. Our first task was to beat back this strange new invasion. What proceeded to happen was ability lag that went on for seconds at a time, invisible enemies, invisible players and NPC’s, and multiple disconnections from the server. Phase one was, to myself and many other players, a complete disaster.

Next was a more confined affair. A small investigation to try and reveal information about the Karka invaders, and trying to find out how to destroy the armoured beasts. This involved little more than running around to different areas, talking to different NPC’s who would relay little bits of lore to you, and send you to the next. Unfortunately, one of the NPC’s who was supposed to give us information was, you guessed it, bugged. He wouldn’t tell us what we needed to progress the quest, so we were left with an uncompleted chain with nothing else to do until the next day (when it was supposed to be fixed).

The second half of the investigation started before many had even completed the first, which had by then been fixed, so many players were confused about what the hell was going on, myself included, which annoyed me as someone who loves lore and hates not understanding what’s going on. Dejected, I abandoned the investigation aspect altogether and decided I’d read the lore at a later date, and just wait for the new island to become available. Would you guess there were more problems? You’re right.

The new island - Southsun Cove - is made available, immediately every player in the world decides to go there straight away, myself included. Queue more terrible lag, more disconnections and more frustration. I left and farmed my usual spot in the Cursed Shore while others played in the new zone.

After a weekend of complete disappointment and frustration I decided to join in on the grand finale when it hit, 8pm Sunday in my time. I logged on at around 6pm with a friend and we played around elsewhere waiting for the event. Within an hour, so many people were logged on that the dreaded ability lag was back, even when I was alone for miles. I decided to skip the finale for my own sanity. This was the end of the event, and I had barely seen the new content. I went to bed, disappointed in the way the event had played out.

Monday, my source of information, Guild Wars 2’s sub-reddit. Rage all over, the big finale had been giving people extremely rare items at a consistent rate, as well as a 20-slot bag. Having just got back home, I caught a break. A kind EU player had posted saying they were in an overflow server, where the event was still going on, and he/she was happy to invite any players who wanted in. I PM’ed this kind soul and got an invite. I did the event, it was tedious, it took two hours and I got the 20-slot bag I was after, as well as a couple of semi-rare weapons. All in all? Disappointed. The loot was good, but the event itself was a rush of players spamming their default abilities until things fell over.

Wintersday approaches fast. This is apparently a big Guild Wars holiday so I expect something fun, somewhat silly, but lore-relevant, like Halloween before it. It’ll take a lot to restore my faith in ArenaNet’s ability to pull off massive events, but in the meantime, we now have permanent access to the new island and the new enemy type will reside there forever. At least now I’ll be able to experience some of the event material, even if it’s passed the initial point and most people will resort to going back to Cursed Shore to resume their farming. I’ll check out the new stuff and see if it can hold my interest, if not I’ll go back to older content I haven’t yet touched. All in all, despite my massive disappointment, there’s still plenty for me to see and do in Tyria.