One of the forum mods should probably merge all of the threads complaining about this mission (there are quite a few, search the forum for “Down the Hatch”). In the meantime here are my complaints, which also include points others have made:
Screenshot
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:User_Teknomancer_down_the_hatch_completion_bug.jpg
- Tybalt moves extremely slowly when leaving the drinking contest, and if you get even slightly ahead of him he will stop and not resume moving until you are actually behind him again. I know it says to “follow” him, but that’s ridiculous.
- The final pirate mob has an insane level of health regen, they heal damage as fast as you dish it out. This makes them way too overpowered for any solo Lv33 character. There are veteran trolls in the Shiverpeaks that don’t regen that fast.
- As soon as the final pirate mob aggro’s, the extremely powerful (and long-ranged) cannon turret next to the shack opens fire and makes that overpowered pirate mob even more overpowered. The turret takes out Tybalt and Demmi almost immediately, and you can’t focus on it if any of those super-regen pirates are nearby.
- If you wipe and continue, it is possible to pick off the pirates one at a time from a distance, but the cannon turret will probably still take you out several times more. The bugged pirates mill around under the shack/platform and will not charge if you stay at the absolute limit of your ranged attacks. Don’t get any closer because they will charge then, and at melee range with the turret and their regen, you stand no chance.
- With a constant barrage of ranged attacks and clone/phantasm Mind Wracks, I barely managed to take out all of the bugged pirates on the fourth or fifth wipe/continue. I heard Tybalt say “I’ll escort Demmi to the Lion’s Arch safehouse. Meet us there!” while the turret was still firing.
- The mission map showed a green “go here” star, but there was no corresponding quest marker on the ground. The mission instructions changed to “Defeat the last of the pirates so Demmi and Tybalt can flee to safety” at some point (I didn’t notice when), and it never changed. All enemy pirates were destroyed, and I even took out both turrets, thinking they might count as “pirates” (the one on the other end of the beach was just barely in greatsword range without leaving the instance).
- After checking the entire instance area, I discovered that there are still half a dozen non-hostile Jackdaws standing on the shore (South) near the ship along with your 3 drinking opponents on the ship itself. If these pirates are included in the defeat count, they’re just NPC’s so it’s not possible. The turret on that end of the instance may or may not be hostile, but if it is technically hostile it’s too far away to aggro without leaving the instance.
Not to get too RP-story-mode about this but really, this is an Order of Whispers rescue mission so it should absolutely be solo-able (what with being a “secret” society and all), but that’s impossible in its current state. If I thought I needed an army in order to rescue Demmi, I would have had this character (human mesmer) join the Vigil. The devs have said we’re supposed to be able to solo the entire game with certain exceptions, but there’s no reason for this mission to be one of those exceptions. It’s even more frustrating to actually manage to defeat all of those overpowered enemies, only to end up getting stuck in a broken instance that won’t allow you to continue your personal story. This mission really needs to be fixed.
