Guild Wars 2 Diary #10 : Final Battle with the Ringmaster

And it comes to this: our tenth week of Guild Wars 2 gameplay diaries. I had wanted to spend this week detailing the Lost Shores event, but those of you who follow Guild Wars news will know only too well that that isn’t going to happen. I’m going to give it a bash – just to see how bad the situation really is – but I’m not sure what will come of it. Instead, this week will mainly detail our final battle with the Ringmaster and his gang of hypnotized carnies. I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited to be able to write a sentence like that. As a side note, if you haven’t played in the last few days, you’ll have a pretty hefty patch waiting for you when you try to log-in.

The Ringmaster

I’m feeling much better this week and, more importantly, I can actually talk. That means we can continue through our Guild Wars 2 story path and find out – at long last – exactly what’s been going on with this darn Ringmaster. Weeks ago we heard reports of young children going missing at the carnival and our investigation had us discover the hypnotic powers of the Floating Grizwhirl. It acted like a Mesmer, making people think that those around them are bloodthirsty monsters. The discovery that the Ringmaster was going to unleash this death instrument on the people of Divinity’s Reach was not a good one.

Guild Wars 2 Gameplay Review - Episode #10

The discovery turned out to be true. He and his highest ranking acts – the snake tamer, the psychic and the strong man, as those of you who have followed this diary throughout will remember – entertain the crowd with only one intention: relaxing them enough for them to fall for the Grizwhirl. Unfortunately, the soldiers appear a little bit too late to stop the big finale and some of the crowd become hypnotized.

Once again, it’s down to us to save the day.

The recommended level for this Guild Wars 2 quest is 19, but I did it fairly easily at 16. The respawn point is close enough to the action that your targets don’t really have time to replenish any health, so just keep hammering away and you’ll eventually make your way through. There will be waves of enemies – simply hypnotized crowd members – but these aren’t really a big threat unless you get bombarded by them. Instead, your biggest worry should be the three carnies and the Ringmaster himself.

The three carnies all have their own individual skills. The animal tamer may as well not be there. I found his health dropped quickly and I’m not sure he did any damage to me. The same can almost be said for the strongman, whose biggest ability seems to be a relatively high health. He will fall fairly easily. The psychic is a bigger threat, if only because she fires from a distance. The Ringmaster can do the same and it is them that are likely to finish you off if you find you’re struggling. My biggest suggestion is to constantly attack the Ringmaster. If you can defeat him, the spell will break on everybody else and the level will be over.

Even if you struggle here, just keep powering on. This isn’t nearly as difficult as your encounters with Doc Howler and the close proximity of the battle and the respawn point makes this quest child’s play. In return you’ll receive a shiny piece of armour (which can’t be used until you’re level 18) and a healthy dose of experience. You’ll also be able to get a hint as to where the story will take us next.

The Ringmaster seems to have been a puppet. He wanted to destroy the queen and unleash release anarchy on Divinity’s Reach and onto the world, but he didn’t have much to gain by doing so. No, there’s somebody else behind the curtain, somebody with much more to gain and much more to lose if they are caught. Who can be truly planning these attacks and will we be able to stop them in time?

Before leaving the instance, we receive a message calling us to meet the queen. Perhaps now is the time to find some answers and discover just what on earth is going on in Divinity’s Reach.

The Lost Shores

"Guild Wars 2’s first major event couldn’t have gone worse."

While the PR people at Guild Wars 2 and developers on the forum are playing the whole affair down, users are being less polite. The adventure began in Lion’s Arch, and just entering the city would result in the player’s FPS dropping like a rock down a well. Some people have reported that, at close proximity to the event, they were getting as few as three or four frames per second, and that a mass of people using powers resulted in what can probably only be described as a very haphazard slideshow.

Worse than just unexpected turn out though, the quests themselves were buggy, with NPC characters not doing what they’re supposed to and things either not activating or the system not acknowledging that quests were completed. Asides from the fact that enemies would occasionally drop dead for no real reason, player participation in the event seems to have been confusing and badly planned.

There are still events available and the developers are pushing fixes so that the next few phases are far, far smoother, but already people are saying the event should be run again next week. Asides from the fact that the lighthouse is now missing from Lion’s Arch and some NPCs seem to actually be telling part of the story now, people still seem a little confused as to exactly what is going on and how to participate. This is an on-going problem and something that’s going to be fixed little by little, so I can’t really offer solutions or suggestions, but keep your eyes peeled and, if you want to be involved in the events, watch the official Guild Wars 2 twitter account for information on what is going on.

Conclusion

The Ringmaster story arc is finished and we’ve saved the people of Divinity’s Reach yet again from definite danger. Where the story will take us next will be exciting to see, but we’ll need to level up more before continuing. I had hoped that The Lost Shores would give us an excuse to grab a bit more experience and take part in the evolution of the world through events, but people still aren’t convinced that things are fixed. Even the things the developers have openly said are fixed still seem broken for many. Here’s hoping that they manage to get things under control sooner rather than later and that the event runs as it is supposed to from now on.