Embark Bay should be more useful

Hello everyone, i do believe that embark bay has almost no use the way it's made , apart of being able to craft consets quite easily, but i guess that wasn't at all the point of the outpost....

Besides, it was supposed to help making team easier and get to a location faster but that's not really what happened because people still form in the outpost itself and affording 1 more click isn't hard

Too many things are missing in my opinion and here are my suggestions :
- If people automatically logged on that outpost( wherever they were on their last log), it could have had a little impact
- No access to elite areas : the most important could have been a faster access between ToA and DoA and there isn't any... we should just be able to teleport on any outpost we unlocked
- Nothing about PvP : a facilitator indicating the number of players in each format or maybe merging all pvp outposts in it so that there wouldn't be 3 players in each outpost leading to inactivity...

It's very useful... You can scroll into elite areas from there, bring parties there from guild hall to gate of anguish for doa incase you arent parked, easy consets... yada yada... there are bigger issues anet could be dealing with other than this. I feel people complain just for the sake of complaining these days..

I agree that EB didn't achieve its primary aim, which was to facilitate group formation, but that doesn't make it useless. The ability to get a full 8-person/hero team from continent to continent without having to go through LA or Kamadan is very useful, and having all the traders/merchants in one place is also useful. EB was designed as a PvE resource (which is why zaishen combat isn't offered there), so there doesn't need to be a link to PvP (might as well go to GToB for that, or any of the PvP outposts that will be on the battle isles map when you press m to map to EB?). Being able to go to cities or elite zones would definitely be helpful though.

[edit] Turk is correct, forgot about scrolls working there.

Your suggestions are good. Why is there no crafter for the summoning stones for siege turtle, gaki, oni, or dream rider. At least the siege turtle!

Sad fact of the matter is that we need the time and energy from the live team to do more pressing tasks. Such as a rework for the elementalist and the Ranger that they have mentioned (?). And adjustments for hard mode. Much better they work on what is most vital rather than tweak Embark Beach.

I visit Embark Beach almost every day. What is there is good, and it is a pleasant outpost. Could be better but unless GW 2 gets delayed for another year, think we can forget tweaks.

I don't see why EB should have anything to do with pvp. It was designed for PvE, and all the PvP outposts, aside from factions pseudo PvP, show up when you hit M so it doesn't really matter anyways.

Welcome to the new spamadan.

Embark beach is a pain imo so have been sticking with temple of balthazar and multi jumps to get to where I am heading.
I like a home base where when I appear I can see instantly where everything is without too much effort.
When I appear I can see the zaishen missions straight ahead the traders are just up some stairs slightly to the right and hard right is my storage.


I think they put as much as anyone could wish for in embark beach but because its divided up into game areas you have to stand there like a tourist till you find your bearings.
Keep it simple All travel in one place traders another place Xunlai near the traders and so on.

I think it was created by a committee on a Friday afternoon when they all wanted to get off early for the weekend.

EB would of made more since for grouping if John did not eliminate the need for grouping in the same update with 7 heroes.

Alright first off... it is Embark Beach not Bay, minor thing doesn't matter much... just thought I'd say.
As for your suggestions.

1. Please no, the guild hall is my base and I want it to stay that way. I like Embark Beach, but being put there regardless of where I was before I would not like.
2. Someone mentioned that you can use scrolls there, so not nearly that bad, I do however agree that adding more/all outposts there could be nice. Here it becoming a too long list may be why they didn't do that?
3. Embark Beach is as others said a PvE outpost/hub, so adding the PvP post there isn't really on top of the list of things that Embark needs.

Embark Beach is definitely not as active or handy as was the hopes for it, but it is not completely failed. I think its biggest problem is the size, how things are too spread out and that you can only get to mission outposts.

It's been mentioned already - Embark is just so poorly designed imo, particularly for mapping convenience/efficiency.
Going through the whole process to travel via EB is much more annoying than just meeting up at the place and grouping up at the outpost/town most of the time. It's even worse if you're using a 7h party; eg. it's consistently much faster to go 8ppl zone > kamadan > 8 ppl zone > add heroes than travel via EB unless you get lucky and are put next to the correct region camp.

I only use EB for 2 things: getting the daily vanquish and getting to areas past kamadan in nightfall. For everything else I use gtob--its more convenient (as was mentioned--smaller, stuff put together in user friendly grouping, etc). If I want to get to eye I go thru kaineng, factions-kaineng, prophecies-LA (so I loose 2--easily added back in).

I wish they had spent more time on the set up than making double and triples of stuff there.

This. They could have also just added the vanquish to GTOB, as well as the NPCs for transport and the consumable NPCs, and not wasted time making that entire outpost.

Embark is an utter failure in terms of its intended purpose, but that is down to our preferences as much as any innate quality of the place itself, so while we can critique the designers, I doubt it would have succeeded without major changes which would mean a replica and amalgamation of several other places and attendant "stuff": something I doubt the developers wanted in any case.

Most people use it to grab the daily ZV or make a few cons, and that is about it, rarely does anyone bother to try to form a group there.

We choose to cluster in certain places for various endeavors, pets in EoTN, dungeon runs in Doomlore etc, and habits die hard.

The Zaishan bounties have kept human pugging alive, and Embark was a nice idea, but one we did not embrace for a plethora of reasons.

The developers earn kudos for providing something which attempted to achieve some lofty goals, but it isn't wholly down to them that is doesn't work.

I simply accept it for what it is, and life goes on

imho, EB is just way too big. Finding the NPC you have been looking for is just too much of a struggle. The idea is great, just not as well planned out as I would have liked

+1 on above

It should have been atleast 3 times smaller with campaign zones right next to each other.

Also,I expected to have instant entry to all the dungeons,but that didnt happen...

I have no reason at all to use EB. Buying consets from players in ToA and I'm not lazy to zone to house/cavalon and use the passage scroll to urgoz/deep there

Things could be better.

A. the layout kinda sucks with the rocks and round about ways to get to each camp. It would have been more practical if they had put all 4 travel agents right next to each other. What point is convenience if it's not convenient?

B. They really SHOULD add Temple of Ages to Tyrian Travel.

C. Automatically enter mission for ZM, automatic transport to nearest outpost for ZB and ZVq


EB isn't bad, I like that I'm able to zoom in, get my quests and sell items quickly, but that was an option with GToB as well.

The only nice thing is being able to keep 8 players and the advantages of that go away when you tele in at the furthest point from the travel agent you want (see A.)

Hard to say how much resources were wasted on EB, since the outpost was planned at one time to be a market hub. Would of been better received if it happened a couple years earlier and before 7 heroes came along and filled the need to pug missions. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.

The problem is, it takes longer to walk to a Travel NPC then it does to map travel twice.

Hm... I think Embark Beach could use the Mercenary NPC, plus the hat maker and the costume tailor, and the PvE signposts should be removed from the Great Temple, so the only place to take those quests is Embark Beach.

A Guild NPCs could come in handy too.

Then add a Guild Registrar to the Great Temple. And we have two separate PvE and PvP hubs.


Then... some 50...90% speedups between areas wouldn't hurt.

You know, while you stand in the place with the NPCs you walk normally. But if you leave that, you get a speed buff and can walk way faster to the next spot.


An in all, it would be livelier if it was a better trade hub.

I will never stop wishing for the Xunlai Marketplace. No matter how futile.