Guild Wars 2

The new zone is HARD! I just logged on after missing the main event and decided to check out the new zone. So I got to the new zone saw a Karka and said “Hey! Lets kill that to see what kind of loot I get!”. Needless to say one volley from that young Karka took off half my health and I have like 26k health. Mind you I didn’t die but it caught me off guard lol.

Also the most basic mobs seem to have ALOT of health. In Orr I can take on 3-4 mobs by myself with no issues but in the new zone I get destroyed by trying to take on 2 mobs by myself. I’m finding myself running away from everything in Southsun Cove unless I’m I’m doing an event with a decent amount of people.

Now, I’m not trying to sound negative but I’ve been seeing people everywhere in the zone dying like crazy. Also, I understand that this is only the 2nd level 80 only zone to be added to the game but it just seems like a very large jump to go from Orr difficulty to Southsun Cove difficulty which is a very large increase of difficulty. Some people may disagree with my take on the new zone but please understand this is just my opinion/ feedback on the zone.

On a side note, I LOVE the artwork in the new zone! Looks awesome in every way!

I agree, I went there on my Ele and got one shotted by a red circle on the ground. No, not an AOE… something under the ground. One shot… that was all.

They have some neat mechanics, but overall their damage and defense are too high.
Specially their damage.
It’s so high, that they can kill themselves when you reflect that attack that spits several water bullets, giving mesmers a massive advantage against them.

I think the difficulty of southsun is great. It’s nice to be under threat for once when wondering around PVE.

These guys hit hard. Definitely not a zone to solo run around in, unless maybe you are a plate class.

I think they are fine. Just dodge or reflect their initial range attack and you will be fine.

Skykiller.3160:

The new zone is HARD! I just logged on after missing the main event and decided to check out the new zone. So I got to the new zone saw a Karka and said “Hey! Lets kill that to see what kind of loot I get!”. Needless to say one volley from that young Karka took off half my health and I have like 26k health. Mind you I didn’t die but it caught me off guard lol.

On a side note, I LOVE the artwork in the new zone! Looks awesome in every way!

Hard indeed, but not in a good way. Frustrating, irritating, obnoxious hard. It’s like they took all the worst aspects of boss monsters elsewhere in the game and slapped them on regular enemies in this zone. After exploring the area for 15 minutes I have no desire to ever set foot there again.

Which is a shame, because as you say the place does indeed look lovely. But exploring the rest of it isn’t worth the grief, or armor repair bills.

Rpgtabbycat.5869:

These guys hit hard. Definitely not a zone to solo run around in, unless maybe you are a plate class.

Heavy armor professions doesn’t fare much better. My 3250 armor guardian with defensive utility skills end up near death fighting even a single regular enemy in melee combat in this area. Unless I’m missing something it seems to be an Extreme Risk – Low Reward area to visit.

Hexgame.4802:

I think they are fine. Just dodge or reflect their initial range attack and you will be fine.

The issue is that the Karka volleys for example I dodged twice and still got hit inbetween dodges due to how long the volleys last. I got hit before the volley, inbetween the dodges, and once or twice after. Plus the hits cripple you. So dodging barely helps especially when your fighting (or running) from more then one.

I had 15k hp… met a little karka … i got shot by volley of attack… dead… i am elementalist i know im supposed to die easy… but this is too fast

MithranArkanere.8957:

They have some neat mechanics, but overall their damage and defense are too high.
Specially their damage.
It’s so high, that they can kill themselves when you reflect that attack that spits several water bullets, giving mesmers a massive advantage against them.

Yes, because only mesmers have reflect. My goodness…their damage is so high..my poor glass cannon geared character or low level alt cannot survive. Stop the QQ and actually try to analyze what you can do to improve your survivability. I for one had no issues with the mobs there.

i actually love this new zone because of how difficult it is, and it’s not like orr where all the mobs just cluster together either, they’re actually difficult

besides, if i wanted easy, there’s pretty much every area that isn’t a level 75+ zone to walk through

The only mobs Ive really stuggled with are the Drakes and the Veteran Karka. Considering their size I dont mind that the Veteran Karka are such a hard fight solo but the Drakes attacks seem to be unavoidable and brutally damaging. The fact their sonic breath attack is invisable and seems to work even if Im behind them really makes fighting them a struggle.

The difficulty is great.

If you don’t want to die, don’t run around solo. It’s an MMO. And if you want to run around solo – there are a dozen other zones for you.

We deserve a brutal PvE zone for once.

I think it’s nice that it’s harder, but some things are just overboard – i mean some things hit with conditions that hit HARD! and if your toughness specced it wipes loads of your HP really fast – plus watching a big karka wipe out an entire 20+ group within seconds is just insane for an open area. When i was there a group of us (around 20 to 30) went up to take one out and it just did a big attack (the roll), it just killed everyone in one go.

In orr i can wander through it with no real issue at all with my setup, here i’d hate to see 2 drakes slap 3x bleeds on me at the same time.

The thing that confuses me is that I keep getting hit by DoTs and have no idea what is attacking me. No red circles on the ground, no direct attack from the mob. Difficulty overall is OK. I do have to check the level, since some are 84s but the 80’s I can solo, barely, most of the time (with a ranger). Guardian dies fast. 1 shot death every time in the maze where you collect golem parts, with any character.

The veteran mobs are hard to melee because of their long knock down. I find it useful to ranged kite + dodge while soloing, but still take a long time because of their health pool and armor.

After all, the place is a lot better than Cursed Shore. I don’t see any particular environmental CC yet and the mobs can be avoided much more easily. Their CCs are mostly melee so as long as you keep your distance, it is not so hard running around to harvest or mine.

kissofthehell.3720:

I had 15k hp… met a little karka … i got shot by volley of attack… dead… i am elementalist i know im supposed to die easy… but this is too fast

Erika.8256:

MithranArkanere.8957:

They have some neat mechanics, but overall their damage and defense are too high.
Specially their damage.
It’s so high, that they can kill themselves when you reflect that attack that spits several water bullets, giving mesmers a massive advantage against them.

Yes, because only mesmers have reflect. My goodness…their damage is so high..my poor glass cannon geared character or low level alt cannot survive. Stop the QQ and actually try to analyze what you can do to improve your survivability. I for one had no issues with the mobs there.

Not to act like a special snowflake or anything but I am a guardian under level 20 and don’t get “oneshot” by these mobs. It is the same as with other areas of densely crowded mobs. Pull one at a time, use your utilities, look at the enemies buffs, reflect/mitigate/dodge high dmg attacks, kite, use your downed abilities, fight in a group, switch skills around between pulls, heal before you are in the danger zone. You shouldn’t be able to solo the whole island on a single class. Challenge is good as it develops your skill in execution of the game mechanics.

Also this may help:

The veteran mobs are hard to melee because of their long knock down. I find it useful to ranged kite + dodge while soloing, but still take a long time because of their health pool and armor.

After all, the place is a lot better than Cursed Shore. I don’t see any particular environmental CC yet and the mobs can be avoided much more easily. Their CCs are mostly melee so as long as you keep your distance, it is not so hard running around to harvest or mine.

Diviner.7405:

People complain about everything…

Actually I wasn’t complaining. Just trying to give some feedback on the new zone. In many ways the new zone is a bit too difficult, but I’m not saying in any way that they should dumb it down to the other zones. Rather I’m saying that they need to balance out the damage and defense pools that the Karka have. It is an endgame zone it SHOULD be hard, but not to this extent.

The Holy Trinity of MMO is Dead.

Too bad, because they’re back to writing events as if we need those types.

I can’t solo this new map.

I have no problems with the difficulty myself, but Anet needs to fix something about the key elements of certain mobs. As i said in another topic about the mobs here, 1 of the biggest problems in GW2 is diversity of health pools. I’ve made nearly all classes (only missing a guardian) and when i check in the mists i notice a mindblowing difference in health (using the berserker amulet on all classes)

And a thief ends up in the bottom with 14k health (since the berserker amulet STILL has vitality, it means my thief is only having 11.5k health in crit build), while profs like necro and warrior find themselves with 25k+ health in the mists. Which means some classes have over TWICE my health and in warr/guard case also have greater mitigation of damage due to heavy armor. Which means something that gravely damages them is an instant downed state for a thief.

Here’s the problem with the new zone, 2 mobs:

Reef Drake: They have some kind of aoe (the red circle an elementalist mentioned earlier), it hits 9k by itself on a med armor user, with my health pool it’s near death, it’s usually precedent by its pirouette which unless you dodge roll (cause it also hits you at 700 range) is another 2.5k damage. So against a reef drake with a low health pool you die far too easily cause the aoe is nigh impossible to avoid, and along with the confusion they stack you’ll just kill yourself after the few high damage attacks it has.

Young Karka: they open with 5-6 fast moving stingers which each hit for 2k damage, which unless i dodge roll them is a 1 hit wonder (even when i dodge roll, 2 of them hit) , after that they still have heavy standard attacks that by themselves aren’t a big problem but due to the special opener that hits massively in my health pool i find myself downed in 60% of the fights against them.

Just to make it clear, this isn’t a whine post, all i’m trying to achieve is that people at anet realize they need to change something about the way the special attacks of certains mobs work, cause not all classes work the same way, with twice the health of a thief, a necro/guard/warrior only shrug at the special attacks cause after it they still have 11-15k health to work with, while a thief/elem find themselves with 1-3k health after the special attack. Hard hitting strikes like the karka stingers and that aoe from the reef drakes should do a certain % of damage out of the players total health pool, like 50-60% for the drake aoe, 10% every stinger hitting you. that way high health pool profs still see the numbers they see now, but thieves/elementalists at least find themselves with SOME health left to continue the fight against them.

Just to let you know Grump, a Guardian has the same base HP as the Thief and the extra defence from heavy armor isn’t that much. The mobs hit full toughness/glass specced guardians hard aswell and can infact 2 shot us just the same (the bleeds hurt a lot).

I get your point though.

I’m glad it’s difficult, I hope they continue to add zones with good difficulty that take either skill, strategy, or groups. It makes it fun and not just a mob farm.

The difficulty is just fine, if anything it’s pretty easy. If you’re having problems with the karkas, dodge the volley (twice if you need to) and the rest of their attacks are fairly weak. I honestly find the weakness debuff far more annoying. Projectile blocking/reflecting works amazing as well, definitely a zone I actually run with Dagger Storm instead of Thieves Guild. I’ve not seen any karkas do two volleys close together so just deal with that first attack and you’re fine.

And I’m a thief with full berserkers, enough vit to have ~16.5k hp, and no toughness.

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

The Holy Trinity of MMO is Dead.

Too bad, because they’re back to writing events as if we need those types.

I can’t solo this new map.

It’s an MMO, who ever said you were going to be able to solo every map in the game?

I’m not finding it hard, just broken like everything else so far with this event. The stacks of confusion from drakes are just ridiculous. 10 stacks from 2 drakes that were right next to each other = impossible.

The karka are annoying but at least one on one you can generally just dodge their crazy barrage attacks.

I don’t know, maybe I don’t get it, but I just watched a group of 6 level 80s get wiped out over and over by 2 drakes and an event spawn of 8 young karkas. Nobody can get past it because the drakes just stack confusion up and the karkas keep focus firing half the group before anybody can move on them.

le sigh

God, finally there is a zone that seems not to be kitten easy, not a totally no-brainer like actually all the other zones in 95% of the cases und some people are crying again. I’m sorry, but I like that you can just rush through the encounters from time to time, but this game really needs zones with more difficulty and I hope this is the first of many!

About drakes and confusion: I was able to handle 2 on my own… It was hard and close, but I did it… There is one reason why so many 80s are dying out there… They were trained for nothing out in the open PvE world concerning a challenge, so they are not prepared for something where they actually have to react properly!
This games difficulty should’ve been increased starting at the latest at lvl 30+ more and more…

Serbaayuu.3051:

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

The Holy Trinity of MMO is Dead.

Too bad, because they’re back to writing events as if we need those types.

I can’t solo this new map.

It’s an MMO, who ever said you were going to be able to solo every map in the game?

That’s great, but it would be nice if it said so somewhere that this is a group-mandatory zone.

Black Regent.5897:

I’m not finding it hard, just broken like everything else so far with this event. The stacks of confusion from drakes are just ridiculous. 10 stacks from 2 drakes that were right next to each other = impossible.

The karka are annoying but at least one on one you can generally just dodge their crazy barrage attacks.

I don’t know, maybe I don’t get it, but I just watched a group of 6 level 80s get wiped out over and over by 2 drakes and an event spawn of 8 young karkas. Nobody can get past it because the drakes just stack confusion up and the karkas keep focus firing half the group before anybody can move on them.

le sigh

Oh no, you can’t beat the new level 80+ enemies on the first day they’re available.

After all, this is an MMO. And in MMOs, it’s UNHEARD OF for people to get better at content after a few days/weeks, when they gradually learn how to combat the mechanics and figure out the best ways to win!

I wouldn’t mind the difficulty at all if the loot wasn’t just as terrible as everywhere else.

Black Regent.5897:

I’m not finding it hard, just broken like everything else so far with this event. The stacks of confusion from drakes are just ridiculous. 10 stacks from 2 drakes that were right next to each other = impossible.

The karka are annoying but at least one on one you can generally just dodge their crazy barrage attacks.

I don’t know, maybe I don’t get it, but I just watched a group of 6 level 80s get wiped out over and over by 2 drakes and an event spawn of 8 young karkas. Nobody can get past it because the drakes just stack confusion up and the karkas keep focus firing half the group before anybody can move on them.

le sigh

Stop spamming skill 1 under confusion ?
Use condition removal ?

You can easily solo 3 or 4 young karka.
You can easily solo 2 drakes.

If 6 level 80 full exo can’t handle 8 young karkas and 2 drakes, they’re just bad.

The vet and champion big karkas are hard, it’s just impossible for me to solo them. I love this, finally an area where you have to play with other people if you want to take down the big foes.

I for one am really glad they made the mobs difficult. I guess it’s really aimed for people with full lvl 80 exotics and finished builds, despite the area scaling all players to 80. Some monsters, like the drakes and veteran kraka I just don’t want to fight solo, and I am totally fine with it – And that’s with a build I can solo flip fully upgraded camps in WvW.

get a group → problem solved… it is newest lvl 80 zone, what would you want? solo it? oh god…

My Guardian got her faced smashed in.

So I brought my level 29 Ranger in green gear in.

Soloing Veterans like a pro.

New zone was harder than I expected, too, and I died twice pretty quickly.

Kinda necessary, given the huge influx of player into one map, though.

I just got killed in one shot by a worm! I am a level 80 thief with full exotics. Even the drakes take over half my health in one hit.

ppl still learn how 2 use dodge.

I find the difficulty to be a step up from Orr, which is a good thing.

I never had to dodge in Orr, and I’m a glass cannon hammer warrior. Now that I find myself facing the karka and the drakes, dodging and timing is what seperates me from finishing the fight at 95% health instead of 30% health. In Orr you can, once geared in 80 masterworks, pretty much ignore your roll button and burst down almost anything. It might be tougher on some profs, but ultimately most people run glass specs in orr because all you need to succeed is overwhelming offense.

This zone is a great way to teach people how to maximise their survivability with the tools they have, something that quite a few PvE players, and even some PvP players, lack. With the focus now no longer being on overwhelming offense, but surviving, the populace as a whole will gradually raise their overall skill level.

Dungeon runs will be smoother, WvWvW skirmishes will no longer be noob-stomping but actual battles…

I can dream, no?

block, blind, dodge… something to take the edge off

I like the zone so far. It’s at least not a dark gloomy with-no-reason-to-be-there kind of land. The mobs are the hard part, not navigating a maze of arbitrarily unclimbable slopes.

I read some of the comments and while i expect that much vulnerability from clothies and medium armor users, but from heavy armor too?

My Guardian with knights and some tough/power/vitality gear, soloed a Veteran hatcher.

I wont say it was easy but it was competive. Albeit its not really designed for solo, its certainly killable, at least by certain classes with certain gear.

I don’t find it that difficult, just don’t mob 4+ at the same time and they aren’t as packed like Orr, and I think it’s fine

Young Karkas : Dodge first volley or block them with shield or something and you’ll be fine

Veteran Karkas : They are really harder 1v1 but I’ve managed to solo some of them, but get away from the obvious rolling as they will one shot you or almost (It was really funny to see a full zerg get rolled by the karka and see all of them downed xD). But it’s a bit long and a small mistake hurts a lot. But, they’re meant to be taken down in groups, meet some people and gather up or run with your mates!

Drakes : Don’t get too close to them or they’ll stack a llooooot of confusion and it hurts, use condition removal. Manageable

Keep it difficult, it adds a challenge. Were you expecting walk into uncharted territory and steamroll over every opponent you met? Ya, that’s what happened when we had 50+ guys doing the phase 2 event for the first time, but after that, it SHOULD be difficult. Considering these things attacked the great city of Lion’s Arch, they obviously pack a nasty punch.

People need to escape that whole zerg mindset they got used to in Orr. A huge group of people aren’t doing the work for you. You actually need to focus and use your utilities. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say “I never use most of these skills because they do no damage”. Start playing smart and quit playing so offensively, that’s why you’re dying.

Pay attention to your surroundings, use your utility and other skills more defensively and dodge and you will do great. I logged on my level 13 elementalist, and was still able to take on multiple mobs at the same time and I didn’t even have all my traits and utility skills unlocked.

This is coming from a semi-casual/dedicated player.

Okamy.8235:

Black Regent.5897:

I’m not finding it hard, just broken like everything else so far with this event. The stacks of confusion from drakes are just ridiculous. 10 stacks from 2 drakes that were right next to each other = impossible.

The karka are annoying but at least one on one you can generally just dodge their crazy barrage attacks.

I don’t know, maybe I don’t get it, but I just watched a group of 6 level 80s get wiped out over and over by 2 drakes and an event spawn of 8 young karkas. Nobody can get past it because the drakes just stack confusion up and the karkas keep focus firing half the group before anybody can move on them.

le sigh

Stop spamming skill 1 under confusion ?
Use condition removal ?

You can easily solo 3 or 4 young karka.
You can easily solo 2 drakes.

If 6 level 80 full exo can’t handle 8 young karkas and 2 drakes, they’re just bad.

The vet and champion big karkas are hard, it’s just impossible for me to solo them. I love this, finally an area where you have to play with other people if you want to take down the big foes.

Hurrrr durrrrr, no kidding. And here I thought I would just smash my face on the keyboard and see what happened.

Consume conditions is on 25 second cooldown. When there’s 2 drakes stacking up 8x confusion or more on you instantly it doesn’t work real well. Just for kicks I just went out and found a drake. I had 6 stacks of confusion on me withing 10 seconds of the fight starting. Consumed them, and had 5 more a few seconds later.

I don’t think that’s supposed to happen.

And, again, if this is supposed to be group-mandatory, that’s fine, but it sure would have been nice to know beforehand.

If your anti-condition isn’t enough, bring one more anti-condition. You can change your skill/aptitude, just do it.
Use degen build against them and look them die while you’re laughing at them.

The drake are mob with specific attack, use specific build/method for them.

I like the zone much better than Orr. I hate being yanked around like a rag doll by the undead in Orr. A small group does ok in the new area. Some of it can be solo or duo.

kissofthehell.3720:

I had 15k hp… met a little karka … i got shot by volley of attack… dead… i am elementalist i know im supposed to die easy… but this is too fast

Something is wrong here. I have ~13,700 HP on my Elementalist and I went and leeroy’d half of the cavern (it’s a giant spiral staircase full of Young Karka and Veterans). I got to the top before I got downed once with almost every mob hitting me at one point or another.

Xyos.2740:

I agree, I went there on my Ele and got one shotted by a red circle on the ground. No, not an AOE… something under the ground. One shot… that was all.

So, dodge the red circles?

I don’t find level 1 or 2 hard at all, level 3 starts to get tricky, but apart from that, it is a awesome challenge and very well done so far.

Dissapointed with the event though, bugged out and all and I cannot obtain a map peice.

Sorry I don’t like trash mobs that a hard fight. I am all for hard events and boss mobs, etc. But I am annoyed by the mob density and difficulty of ’wondering monsters".

Getting from point A to point B shouldn’t be a grind. I don’t want to have a hard fight every inch of progress my character makes.

i encourage difficult 80 zones that require more than one person to blaze through…i like it.