I Dont Understand!

Why does everyone hate factions!? I mean its easy levling boo-ho. Its cool how luxon/kurzick come toghotr twords end its great story line, Tons of missions and quests!! I mean yes its un-runable buts thats good so your not in harvest temple and theres a lvl 4 mesmer there saying DANCING NAKED FOR TIPS! Personally i think all the GW is good Prohphcies being first factions second and nightfall last its like votes of 3-2 4/5-2 3/5 ITS RETARTED HOW YOU HATE FACTIONS I LOVE IT! can someone explain to me why everyone hates factions?

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Spirit Of The Sea

And the useless Thread Award goes to:


I personally love factions, it's my favorite campaign , followed by prophecies, and I absolutly hate hate hate Nightfall.

OP aside, I'd have to agree that i don't understand all the Factions hate. I love it, personally. It's challenging, offers some of the most unique and gorgeous environments I've ever seen in a game, and the bulk of the content is level 20 so there's a minimum of level grind (and what there is is challenging enough that i don't mind it).

I just made a PvE Ritualist...

I loved Factions and its were i am whenever i play now. I guess people dont like it because they actually have to play the game when it comes to progressing. I was disappointed that Nightfall did not take a leaf out of the Factions book and have some missions like those of Fort Aspenwood and Jade Quarry.

Well, I quite liked Factions, except for a few sticking points... mainly the voice acting, and situations like Vizunah and Unwaking where you can fail due to a team that you had no control over. Aside from that, I don't mind it at all.

My main complaint was grinding for the 10,000 faction. Other than that I liked it.

If you've been around since the beginning, you might understand thet Factions introduced a shift in playing style that many PvE preferring players came to resent. It signalled to some that ANet was leaning heavy towards a PvP style game over PvE (not my opinion, but one I've read more than a few times). Because of the differences, people took it as a sign of overall changes in game play....With Nightfall coming out and returning to a more PvE friendly game style, people who didn't like Factions generally liked it and threw even more hate towards Factions because now they have 2 chapters that are more PvE firendly and can reflect upon how they like chapters 1 and 3. Personally, I like each for different reasons....and dislike certain aspects of each...but you won't see me getting my Jockeys in a bunch over any of it. On the whole, ANet has produced a superior product with no monthly fee and less grind...I'm no fanboy, but I do dig this series of games and look forward to see what they do next.

Reasons why people hate factions (Disclaimer, not all or even most of these are my opinion, I'm just listing them):
- 10,000 faction required to continue the storyline. Many people didn't realize this the first time they went through the game, and ended up spending all their quest faction before getting this quest reward. They were then "forced" to pvp in FA or JQ. This experience left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. Also, if you're taking a new char through factions, you have to regain all 10k faction.

- The environments (Kaineng City especially) are drab and/or uninteresting. Even if you don't agree with this, objectively speaking there are far fewer types of environments in Factions than in Nightfall, and especially Prophecies. (In response to the inevitable dispute of this, Nightfall has Jungle, swamp, pure desert, savannah, the almost-tropical oasis of Vabbi, and the Realm of Torment is a different style in almost every area. Factions has Shing Jea, Kaineng, Undercity, Echovald Forest, and the Jade Sea.)

- Tying into the above, the size of Cantha is much smaller than Tyria, and there are pretty much no explorable areas or outposts that aren't tied locked. People like to explore, especially out of the way areas that have no correlation to the actual story. (Nightfall brought these areas back thankfully).

- Many PvE players were off-put by the fact that a good portion of Factions' content was obviously PvP-slanted. It was, to be blunt, a PvP focused chapter.

- This was the first chapter that introduced the loss of skill quests and slow leveling. Furthermore, you could buy every nonelite skill in Kaineng, and you hit lvl20 in your first 5 hours of playing or so. These factors led to the feeling that you can't really improve your character after you hit Kaineng, beyond capping a few elites.

- The storyline was very much full of holes at the time. Nightfall has cleared up pretty much all of them thankfully.

- Lastly, because it was the first chapter after Prophecies, it was the first time that long-time players realized that new chapters wouldn't completely bring back the awesome feeling they got when they first started playing Guild Wars. That was a let down for many people.

Some combination of these is at the heart of most complaints I've heard about Factions. Personally I love Nightfall (as you can tell if you read my parenthetical comments) but I don't hate Factions. I just don't play there much.

[edit] Forgot the 2 team missions. It was a nice idea but people hate being reliant on teams that they have no control over.

A lot of people did not like that you could not run to places, like in Prophecies. Once or twice through, going to every single place was enough for most, then they would prefer running, but you could not do that in Factions.

I enjoyed Factions, but I go back to Tyria more than Cantha.

You can really finish those 2 missions without the other team. You can make up an entire team with a MM. That won't be a problem if you have Nightfall.

The factions won't be much of a "grind" if you had fun in the process of doing it. Just go do some Alliance Battle, Fort Aspenwood, or "maybe" Jade Quarry, you'll get those factions in no time.

There is at least 1 skill from each profession that you won't be able to obtain until you have reached Harvest Temple. So you can't buy ALL non-elite skills in Kaineng.

Closed Gates and that damn city. Got Malice up to Aberstone then quit from sheer frustration.

That was the most obvious thing, I don't see how it's so great.

Compare Factions 13 missions to Prophecies 25 missions and Nightfalls 20 missions and say thats a ton.

Nightfall is unrunable and people still like it. And why are you hating on the low levels? Theres many level 20's that do stupid crap like that and also if a level 4 is at harvest temple, they are obviously more experienced with the game.

The storyline was crap and short. Factions brought 2 of the most shunned upon classes in the game, Assassin and Ritualist. (Not saying I agree with that). The missions themselves were crap, especially vizunah and unwaking. The Kurzick vs. Luxon crap got turned into an immature flame fest. Many more reasons why many people dislike Factions.

People have different taste. The reasons why I didn't like Factions is because it was short, storyline was kinda weak, not so great voice-acting, closed gates (I like to explore without being required to do some mission), cramped/small explorable areas, and a bunch of other things I can't think of right now. That's pretty much my opinion.

The only things I like about Factions was the armor and weapons, and that's all. Love Nightfall after Prophecies, reasons why I love Nightfall...it's the opposite of what I said about why I didn't like Factions. You shouldn't get angry at people for disliking the chapter that you love, like I said people have different taste. I see other people hate Nightfall but you don't see me getting mad at them, no worries.

Fed Ex missions...

go to point A then travel to point B then told to go to point C then told to go back to A for the reward...Zzzz

I like the long drawn out missions of Chaper 1 and the fact I could spend an hour or 2 afk in a mission if I needed to.

For me, I didn't like the new mission system - time based. And it was also really short with thirteen missions.

It was freaking gorgeous, though. I find it has much more eye candy than Nightfall, and for me that's a big plus.

I can buy every skill in the game in Kaineng/Lions/Kamadan ^_^


Anyways forgot to say, I also love factions because of the Luxons/Kurzicks thing, I think its interesting seeing 2 clans hate each other so much and people actually taking it serious

I like factions because it's the easiest place to start a new char, all my chars are canthan. The missions are fun to play, I will always remember the first time i beat vizunah square. Another thing is I really like the scenery in some parts of cantha.

Good points but I still find factions unqie! Theres towns you can FF/AB/Quest for factions so that you can own that town and get special reward for your hard work. Ferrying and non HZH/C get to get merchs with low prices and fireworks. AND ALLINCE BATTLES.

I just listed 2 differnt and awsome advances in PVE/PVP that people enjoy and will untill the end of time.


And for thoose of you that say RIT AND ASSASIN SUCK, your horribley mistaken. I have a ritualist that can solo fow,Vermin,trolls and various places in the jade sea and echovld forest and as for assasin do tons of burst dmg and can telaport to differnt places fooling the opponent and using high tricks to even solo bosses (plus both look cool).

So you cant say, Nothing special in pve or pvp and rit/assasin suck!

From wiki...

I'm guessing he meant cos he already has the skills unlocked, through faction or whatever, so can get em from kaineng.

As for factions being bad, I didn't find it that bad, but the most annoying thing was getting the 10k faction. Also, it was very short in comparison and whilst the sin/rit are both good classes, I'd say they're the most shunned classes in the game.

The only thing I like is the alliance battles, which are good fun if you're bored, but it gets kinda annoying to see people taking it as a geniune rivalry. You don't go a single battle without seeing: "Suxons" and "Kurdicks" Which is kinda annoying.

This isn't as obvious as it should be, but the Kurz/Luxon Faction is ACCOUNT-wide, not character specific. As long as you don't cash it in, a new character will register the befriending quests as complete almost immediately after taking them.

And this is more a nit pick, but Kaineng's skill trainer does not have all non elite skills. That's the trainer in the Harvest Temple. I think it's only like 5 skills per profession though, so that's kidn of splitting hairs.



I personally enjoyed Factions and am still trying to get characters through it, if only for access to the skills. I do wish it was more like Prophecies in that you didn't have to do missons/quests to get to most of the areas. Especially since you're likely to bring multiple characters through, it's nice to be able to take short cuts once you've gone through the story once.

Factions noob island was great.. Short and nice.. City SUCKED so much.
Kurzick places like Melandru's Hope were sooo nice.. Luxon/Kurz FF is a nice system. PvP in Factions sucked, since you cant join Fort without getting atleast 1 bot and leecher in your team, and only half of the team know what to do instead of running around killing everyone. Factions was short, and kinda boring sometimes, but I LOVE the new weps and armor that came. Anet learned after Factions, and made an explorable map in NF. They know what we want. I hope chapter 4 is a big map with MANY different places like Propechies. I would also love lvl40-50 elite bosses of each prof in special arenas that you need a team of 8/12 to make ^.^

Go Factions, go Nightfall, and ofcourse, go Propechies!

Why I hated factions:

1. Fast rate of leveling - Prophecies was a bit slow, but OK. Nightfall's is about right.

2. Bad story line - it was poorly done and made me feel like I was along for the ride, a spectator.

3. Timed missions - I prefer to play at my own pace, and not be rushed through the game.. That's probably the biggest thing for me right there.

4. That damn city - didn't like being there, and was really, really annoyed that once I got out of it, I had to go Back!!!

5. Bad cut-scene acting and nasty, grating voices.

6. RUSH, RUSH, RUSH!! WAIT! go farm 10k faction before continuing!

7. Access to elite missions - the method of getting to them is a horrid idea that shouldn't ever have been implemented.

8. Viznuah Square mission - depending on another party to keep their guy alive? AAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!

Only thing I didnt like about Factions was the 10k, becuse that made me have to grind out faction for both sides. other than that Factions is superior than Nightfall by far. It looks better, more varied landscape. And to those who are saying that they didnt like the 10k faction thing, Nightfall has the exact same garbage with the Sunspear junk. Oh yeah I forgot, Factions didnt have heroes, so at least it was possible to do missions with people.
Prophecies on the other hand is amazing. Why can't they just stick with that style. If you wanted to explore, not a problem, didnt wanna do a mission, get a run.

Closed doors at your face are so...

Man at time of factions i have 6 pve... i start my rit, because everyone kown sin sucks in pve... i play all storyline with my rit, enjoy the game, is good a game, good story, good ideas... well finish the game... start my pve sin...
... ... at groove i change the secondary of my sin for rit and use a spirit build, no sin skills, well but it other history... well finish the game, dont enjoy the game because sin sucks in pve, all kown it no secret...

Now the worst of factions... i have 6 more pve to cap skills... not to finish the game just to cap... man cant run to citys...
What i do about the annoying 10k quest?
man all quest for kurziks take 10k in factions, and stop playing with the carac i use to get the faction ( i cant remember what carac), i start to carry every other carac to the city of quest... and take que quest... use the faction and make the same with luxon quest... hell just to make caps...

NF make things a bit easy for caps, again closed gates but a bit faster...
But the sad is the need to finish the game...

I forget to say i dont hate factions...

Yeah i dont get why People hates factions? You cant run people there (Thats good, actually) And the greens are ALMOST everywhere! And if you dont like alliance battle then you a hater, boi.

I didn't like prophiecies, too easy if you have the money. As soon as you get you're 2nd Proffesion, you can leave Pre searing, YAY. Get runned to beacons from Ascalon, get runned to droks from beacons, get runned to THK from droks. Do ring of fire with guildies, Do abbadon with guildies, Do Hell's precipe with guildies and winter spirit. Siggh boring. Factions and Nightfall FTW

and to the OP: Not everyone does hate Factions, but just think that Prophecies and Nightfall are a lot better. Since Factions was the first expansion, most of us didn't know what to expect, and perhaps got our hopes a bit too high up, and so were a bit dissapointed when factions failed to deliver an awesome game like prophecies.

I guess I'm a hater because I don't like fighting afking PvErs in PvP.

Why Factions PvE was bad:
Fedex syndrome
10k Faction Requirement
No more running(didnt bother me, but many hated it)
Storyline
2 team missions
The access to the elite areas is messed up.
The elite area's really arent that elite.

Why Factions PvP was bad:
AB was a great concept that anet managed to screw up entirely
Fort Aspenwood is badly unbalanced and quite unfun due to randomness.
Jade Quarry. Cant comment because of "No opposing party", but I guess that is enough comment in itself.
Rt spirit spam was the most frustrating thing ever and just lead to marathon GvGs.

About the only good thing to come from Factions was the Assassin. It's not so great for PvE, but it made big impacts on GvG adding some nice variety to split team possibilities.

One big thing to hate: mack-daddy-Mhenlo is the big hero, not the players.

Factions > all

I think a lot of prophecies is hopelessly drab (parts of Kryta, seared Ascalon, the Jungle) and the structure of missions is really quite boring. The best thing it has going for it is that it is runnable.

The worst thing about Factions IMO is the voice acting, it is exceedingly horrible.

The items were not particularly nice to look at or rare.

The city which was a big portion of the game was a big eye sore. I really really hated it. I also had to sit in the dark as the damn glare on the monitor made navigating around the city impossible. I am sure I could have bought some anti-glare cover but I have never ever had this problem before.

It was unrunnable. Sucks when you have a male and female version of each profession. Also sucks when you have to do all the retarded primary quests in the hideous city. Skill capping is a nightmare as you need to take each character through the game. Was much better in prophecies when you could get run to each town and skill cap outside it easily.

Prophecies lasted much much longer than factions and that had rare weapons, visually attractive areas and was runnable. Whenever I do play Guild Wars it is in Prophecies. So Factions lasted all of a couple of days while I have played Prophecies since release.

i dont understand why you don't understand all you do is compare and contrast tyria and nightfall to cantha, its not bad, just worse then the other two

the reason i hate factions is: In the freeplay weekend, they let you run around, game comes out, slamm shut doors...if anet wants more people to play factions they should open all the doors and let us run for craps sake

took the very words out of my mouth.

except i do consider myself a fanboy due to the fact that no matter what they do next im still interested on where it would take the game regardless how "good" or "bad" it may be to certain cry babies.

Strong Points of Factions:

-Fast leveling (specially compared to Prophecies)
-More gold rewarded for quest turn ins
-Unique and underplayed professions: Ritualists and Assassins
-A "tight" story driven campaign.
-Immersion of player in the environments*

*People don't like the slums because they feel like they are in a slum, duh! The game encourages you to get through and escape the city, and this can be done via team work and playing the game. The slums are a direct result of millions of refugees fleeing the destruction in the east.

Additionally, the Jade Sea and Quarries are some of the most creative game environment concepts you will find in a game.

The Usual Whine: I can't be ran through and by pass game content, wah!

The Irony: It's like going to a horror flick and complaining you got scared o.O

I am not gioing to say I dislike or like Factions. It has its strong points and its weak points. The main thing about Factions that I realy dislike is the farming grind that you have to do to maintain a decent amount of alliance points to keep a town. Truly that is one of the worst parts of the game. I personaly like the way they curb the runners in Factions though. That was truly a briliant idea. In NightFall they have a different system to stymie runners. Although you can be run to almost every place on the main continent, unless you actualy do the primary quests you will never finish the game.
I think they iplemented the fast leveling to allow us as players to get into groups easier due to the large number of high level players coming from Tyria. Other than those I realy don not have any other complaints.

Mega Mouse

Yes, game content that becomes extremely boring after you've been forced to repeat every bloody mission with each char you create. After a while it just gets way to repetitive.

Why they couldn't just have it so that once the chapter had been completed with a Canthan born char the gates aren't there anymore is beyond me. At least that way you could speed your 4th or 5th char through and anyone who hadn't actually completed the chapter couldn't.