The Crystal Desert: Marathon

What the hell is up with everyone running everywhere? ffs, you literally CAN'T get a group as ANYONE to go ANYWHERE if it doesn't involve a few hundred gold and a leader with sprint/storm chaser. Can anything be done about this and what? This is completely ruining the experience game for new people.

well trying to get to the dunes is hard as hell.....

Nothing they can physically do without pissing off half of the player base. It sucks, yes...

1 word, henches.

Playing with henches will increase your IQ anyway. Play with people just makes you worse.

um, you're wrong? try harder?

i actually consider it to be the easiest mission to do AND get to. it's so straight forward getting there (there's barely any enemies after the hydras), and the mission itself can be done with just henchmen because there really isnt any strategy involved aside from 'stay away from wurms'.

well lol first off i didnt know how to get to the zone area below me, and i took the harder way with the worms and griffons

I made it to Sanctum Cay as a level 9 Monk with henchmen, and as a level 12 Ranger with henchmen. It's not really too hard. I kind of find it funny that people would wait hours thinking that a full-player PUG would be better off than a hybrid henchmen/player group. /shrug

Made it as monk in less than 24 hours too. Now I just need to smarten up my npcs so they actually know how to win cay

The desert isn't that difficult. I like to fight my way to each town and mission area but I get why people want to run to the places. Your character is so close to ascending that you just want to get to it as soon as possible. That, and laziness, always the laziness.

There is probably only one hard place when you hit the desert for the first time, and that is as soon as you leave Amnoon Oasis. All those Scarabs will totally eliminate the very first tries of anyone going out there.

All other places are quite do-able with somde dedication
And i just love all those people who fail to understand the Teleporters after hours of trying. Its allways fun to explore with a party only to have people state they know how those things work and then blindly start guessing the way they are activated XD

I guarantee that Elona, Dunes, and Thirsty River will be easier with henchmen than with people. Less time involved to get a group, less chance of failure, nearly the same mission time, no arguing, no leavers, and the list goes on.

Of course he left out he had already run to Droknars for Droknars armor and got a few higher level skills along the path and or used previous unlocks from other characters. Yes, they always seem to leave that part out.

That isn't always the case. I got a monk to the Crystal Desert by level 10 only using henchmen and Ascalon Armor. I never had anyone rush or help me at all. It's quite easy with a monk as you can just sit back and heal.

Lost is right. Its not hard at all. I've done it with every class using Ascalon City armor.
What unlocks? Unlocks only work for advancing PvP characters. And what do you care if he got Drok's armor beforehand? How many times have you played through the game? Personally, after the first few times, playing through PvE normally can be a bit boring.

Try the armor outside of Sanctum Cay that I bought with my own money

I have yet to party with a human player(except for the searing PVP, which Anet seems to have forced upon us now). I am level 12, have reached all the ascension mission areas, and have completed Elona Reach. Don't be jealous

If you don't believe it, that's nice. It shows how utterly closed-minded some people are

Oh and I have died. I have died a lot. I didn't say I was impervious. I just know how to play the game.

Going on about 22 hours now.

Too bad that crafter doesn't offer armor to warriors or rangers.

Too bad it's the monk that's in the desert
Wait, before I post this, any other rebuttals? Keep trying. There's a reason I've got an answer to all these. It's because I've done it

Why not skip a load of crap by just going directly to draknors. Do not pass ascension, do not collect anything because you get infused after that anyway... I seriously see no point in going to maguuma or the desert besides a few missions and stuff and ToA.

Hey! I hired a Wa/Mo with sprint to get me to the ouposts and mission's in the desert... best money I spent.. I hired myself lol was funny.. running with sprint without knowing exactly where I was going.. alt-tabbing out to look at maps to see where to go.. LOL I thought that was fun and challanging...

But the sad fact is people are generally impatient.. and want to get run everywhere because it's easier to do that than do it yourself. People generally look for the easy way out... and with all the "runners" throughout the game.. people expect to be able to be run anywhere.

Desert -> Ascension -> FoW/UW
Desert -> Ascension -> Possible access to expansion areas

Somethin' definately has to be done.. Can't stand this..

whats wrong with getting ran? with my first character(ranger) i did do everything myself. got the henchies and just ran every where, and it was challenging sometimes, specially getting to dunes and thirsty. elona i had accidently stumbled upon while tryin to get to augory. i did all the missions in groups and ascended properly.

now on my second character, my E/mo, i dont wanna have to do it all again. i payed my way thru the desert. run to augory. then a complete tour of the desert. then i payed for someone to run elona. all just for convience....and laziness. tho i had to do dunes and thirsty

There's nothing wrong with having your second avatar run if you want to. I don't see the point, but neither do I see any harm.

It's the guys getting their FIRST avatar run that are irritating. I don't want to have to answer questions like "how do I use runes" and "why are some weapons blue" at Draknors.

Oh and Kai Nui: skipping the areas between Beacons and Draknors isn't "a few missions and quests", it's about 2/3rds of the PvE campaign.

I find it a challenge to take henchmen and Take My time getting places. I'll fight a mob then heal/recharge then move on. I was just in Whitman's Folly skill capping with Henchmen. Not that hard if you play smart and take your time at it. When I got on top of hill then I would fire down the the magic users. The henchmen would add to it. Clean them mostly out then go down and finish off the rest.

Got my skill cap, then proceeded to collect Grawl Necklaces for the Collector outside of Port Sledge. Aquired a decent Staff with faster Healing prayer casting. (Wasn't paying attention and thought it was a Rod *sigh*)

As for the Desert. We just last night two of us went out with Henchmen and collected Hydra Claws. Took some time. Then we got a Healing Gizmo from another Collector near the Teleporter.

I see no need to be rushed anywhere. Well except to Droknar's. A serious need for better armor on a Monk. However, I played the game in the story line since. I just wanted a little buff. Need that because of playing with PUGs I get hammered from all there Running though the Mission crap.

Old Warrior Dood - was that 1st part aimed at me? hehehe

I admit I'm the same. I usually like to take it nice a slowly and map everything, kill everything and just take things at my own pace. Decided to try something different and run myself (hehehe) to the outposts and missions in the desert... and then head out and map the area's slowly from the outposts..

the biggest problem with being run/runners is the fact that way too many people are being run on their 1st character and just don't learn how to play the game properly or what anything does. I've had numerious discussions in-game with people telling them how things worked in the game.. simple and basic things... but these were ppl who had some pieces of drok armor.. had been run to the forge.. sactum clay, etc... yet didn't know some of the basic's of the game!

I personally have no issues with people running/rushing their 2nd, 3rd, etc character to get forge armor or such - that is their choiuce & they know how the game plays and have done everything beforehand... I have a huge problem with people running their 1st char or ppl running others when it's their 1st character..

problem is that because there are so many ppl advertising running in basically every single outpost/city/mission... anyone new to the game will think thats the norm and pay to be run all over the place and just not learn how to play the game properly like they would if they played their 1st char through the storyline like your meant to. It's become a industry and expectation to be run or run everywhere.. and because of the wide spread running.. new players will have the expectation that they can't succeeed in the game if they don't get run..

Esp when you have runner's saying "run to X town/outpost for new armor to help you through the game! only x gold!" or something similar.. and I've seen ppl saying that in ascalon.. advertising runs to yak's bends... or in yaks bend to kryta.. or to the forge... the way some runners advertise is making it seem to new players they *have* to be run there if they wanna succeed.. disgusting tactics imo to get ppl to run.. and sad fact is it gets a lot of new players who just don't know any better.

um, last time i checked, most new people arent at the crystal desert yet.

Kamatsu,

No I wasn't taking a shot at ya...flaming ya..or anything like that. I was just stating how I like to do it. I personally do not need or want to be rushed anywhere except to Droknar's for some decent armor. Then I'll go back and finish the game. Even the boring parts.