Sorrow's Furnace appreciation thread

Demilikos

Demilikos

Academy Page

Join Date: Feb 2005

Philippines

Maguuma Assassins [MagA]

I hope ArenaNet takes notes of this thread. Sorrow's Furnace was amazing!

Symeon

Symeon

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2005

/appreciation

Sorrow's Furnace was a great addition. I think there were several reasons why it made players happy:
  • A large, stunning new area to explore, with interesting quests, NPCs and enemies.
  • Reasonably challenging.
  • The new (at the time) green weapons were attractive rewards.
  • Accessibility. It is not extremely hard, and you don't have to complete the game to get there. This is what sets it apart from DoA.

I have been expressing my desire for more PvE expansions like SF for a long time. While I realise the amount of effort required, I think that ANet should consider the success of SF and contemplate that they could draw a lot of player interest and approval in creating more SF-style expansions.

kimahri

kimahri

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Sep 2005

Defenders of the Blackblade [DotB]

E/

/appreciation

I love going to SF, even though I haven't been to all of it. The fun quests, the fact it's not too hard and the wonderful areas that can be found in there. I also enjoyed Grenth's Footprint when it came, even though today I find it quite dull I have some fun memories from there. The guild I'm in go there now and again together (even though I'm usually not online then).

I have also noticed the fact that some weapons like Galgord's Stone Staff and Rago's Flame Staff have increased in value due to nice stats but low activity in SF.

So, in conclusion, get your friends together and go down there now!

Desbreko

Desbreko

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Oct 2005

California

Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare]

Sorrow's Furnace was home to some of the most fun I've had in GW. The fact that it's hard but still possible as long as you're a skilled player and have a decent plan has a lot to do with that.

One of my favorite memories in there is of me and a friend doing the High Priest Alkar quest with six henchies. As a monk, I stayed behind and defended Alkar while my friend (a necro), along with the henchies, made mad dashes to get the crystals and then back to kill the baddies attacking Alkar before they could overpower my healing. With good coordination and some frantic improvising we managed to pull it off, which felt like a totally awesome accomplishment.

Every now and then I still go back and do a Kilroy run. Best quest in the game.

Winstar

Winstar

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2006

London

Yeah, I loved this zone. In fact, I think I'm going to grab a couple heros and clear it out right now!

Macktar Wang

Macktar Wang

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2006

Signing on just to agree. Sorrow's Furnace is very fun. I finally got around to completing the quests in there, except for Final Assault. Hopefully I'll knock that out this weekend. This is by far my favorite area in all of the Guild Wars universe.

brokenmonkey

brokenmonkey

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Feb 2006

CA

[UC] Uber Crue

W/

I wish they added a way to Cantha from down there, considering the fact that the Dredge in the Cantha quests, dug a whole all the way to cantha from SF...

Teh [prefession]-zorz

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2007

wisconsin

Spiders Lair Kurz [SpL]

W/A

I remember my first time in there back when the razorstone was 80k...i def loved that place even if i didnt get the greens i wanted

Shakti

Shakti

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Sep 2006

Home...

Vier Reiter [Vier]

/total appreciation


I loved SF when it came out. My guild did trips every weekend, was so fun. More screenies there than anywhere else. Tons of variety and interest. I still love it there. Best overall "single area" in any of the chapters imo.

Carinae

Carinae

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2005

Inside

Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare]

Agree wholeheartedly!

SF is all about team play. Groups ranging in size from 4-8 players could actually have a fun and yet intense experience. I met most of my GW buddies in SF and actually learned how to play as a team. (No comments guys)

It was fun, sometimes very exciting, and even profittable for casual gamers. Vastly superior to DoA in every way.

Yawgmoth

Yawgmoth

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Apr 2005

Sorrows Furnace was absolutely awesome. It's an example how more endgame areas in other chapters should have been done.

*It's the best looking indoor area in GW
*It encouraged and rewarded teamplay! That is until Heroes got intoruced...
*It was fun to play
*It had well balanced difficulty level - it wasn't "Elite" but just Endgame content
*It has the best system of rewarding with green items - rewarding successful groups that got further, with great randomization and the great feeling of doing group 'raids' for the phat loot. Exactly opposite to the shitty Factions/Nightfall approach with having bosses dropping greens sitting always in the same places in explorable areas waiting to get solo-farmed bazillion times, where no teamplay and group raids exist.
*SF has the best music in all GW!

Maximumraver

Maximumraver

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2006

The Netherlands

Twisted Revenge [TR]

E/

/love

SF i great, i go there a lot, but just for exploring, the only quest i still need to do, is the one with the priest, and i keep failing at the 4th crystal-thingie (with hero/hench). so if anyone wants to start a group to SF (for questing, or exploring), post it here, i'll join with my ele

Alfrond

Alfrond

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jun 2006

The United States

Boston Guild [BG]

Mo/Me

I also loved Sorrows Furnace. I thought it was fun just to run around in first person and admire the scenery. However, I'm not really sure that later Guild Wars areas are actually worse. Maybe we just need to take the time to stop and smell the roses and we'll find there are other areas that are as nice.

zakaria

zakaria

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2006

it's best well designed place in GW until now..tbh it's the jewel of prophecies campaign.
1- no sick environmental effects like other elite missions.
2- accessible to anyone.
3- rewarding dungeon.
4- nice music and graphics.

in fact i see that the biggest success of SF is because it's a dungeon, see how is oblivion, WoW and many other MMORPG are very popular. part of their success that they were holding alot of dungeons and the concept of well designed and rewarding dungeons (time + luck = rewarding) still appealing to many many RPG players, this was one biggest selling points in other MMORPG "Dungeons waiting for you to explore and dig out its buried treasures" that i hope ANet designers need to take in their minds.

I hope they open catacombs in post searing with well design like SF ..it will be superb.

Zeph

Zeph

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2006

Wales, UK

Expect Extreme Violence [EEV]

Quote:
Originally Posted by zakaria
it's best well designed place in GW until now..tbh it's the jewel of prophecies campaign.
1- no sick environmental effects like other elite missions.
2- accessible to anyone.
3- rewarding dungeon.
4- nice music and graphics.

in fact i see that the biggest success of SF is because it's a dungeon, see how is oblivion, WoW and many other MMORPG are very popular. part of their success that they were holding alot of dungeons and the concept of well designed and rewarding dungeons (time + luck = rewarding) still appealing to many many RPG players, this was one biggest selling points in other MMORPG "Dungeons waiting for you to explore and dig out its buried treasures" that i hope ANet designers need to take in their minds.

I hope they open catacombs in post searing with well design like SF ..it will be superb.
Need I say more. Agree completely!

GG Anet, more SF style stuff please!

Rockby Quickfoot

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Nov 2006

Raptor Five [Five]

Me/Mo

I had never done Sorrow's Furnace very much until a few weeks ago. Me and a friend went through all the quests in there. It was a good time, especially when we were doing the Final Assault. That was the funnest one. I think Sorrow's Furnace is a great area. Just gotta look out for those Priests of Sorrow

Zorglubb

Academy Page

Join Date: Feb 2007

I'm a SF fan too. Nice visuals, varied enemies, reasonnably fast pace, interesting quests, good rewards, powerful-boss-with-a-vulnerability, it has it all.

pixiLated

pixiLated

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Oct 2006

Resident Gutter Dweller

Shards of the Silver Moon [MooN]

E/

/appreciation

My hubby and I often taken our char's back to SF for a bit of R'n'R.

As for the design, gameplay etc. I think that's all been said far better than I ever could by zakaria, Yawgmoth, King Symeon and other previous posters in this thread.

Blobulator

Blobulator

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2006

NSW, Australia

Gwen Is [EVIL]

E/Me

I agree with basically everything that's been said. Sorrow's Furnace is now and probably always will be my favourite "end-game" PvE content (The fact that you don't actually have to have completed the game being an added bonus)

Excellent graphics, innovative quests, epic battles ranging from rushing to escape with Orozar, to protecting High Priest Alkar while splitting up to grab crystals, and most of all the large battle against the Iron Forgeman.

Loved the music, loved the graphics, the greens were a wonderful addition in their time; many still being more useful even with 2 campaigns loaded with them. Music was excellent, really set the mood.

It was designed in an intelligent way too, in terms of gameplay and strategy, none of this "Increased levels and uncreative area effects" nonsense. They actually made Sorrow's challenging while still playable, not some annoying 3 Hour+ trek through incredibly ridiculously monster-infested areas.

Overall, I just love Sorrow's Furance!