Guild Wars 2

Note: some of you read through this and got it; a lot of you either didn’t read it or didn’t get it, including whoever edited the thread title to ensure it confused people, so I’m adding some clarification here. This is not a thread about things being hard, because they’re not. It is not about things being in-completable, because they’re not. It is a thread about things being needlessly annoying. For want of a better term, it’s a list of cheap-shots. My health and armour values are listed here (though no longer correct, my health went up to 28k, I guess thanks to WvW?) solely because they’re on the higher side and what is a cheap-shot to my character is going to be worse for a lot of others. As such, whether you know how to beat the referenced creatures, consider them easy, or whatever, is totally besides the point. Annoying and hard are not synonymous.

For reference I’m playing on a lvl 80 warrior with 3k armour on one weapon set, 3.2k on the other, 27k health. What deals ‘a lot’ of damage to this is dealing fatal damage to many classes and builds, especially when upscaled players are lured into the zone for an event. If anything my experience is probably on the easier side of things compared to most players.

-the drakes (ironically not the champion, the normal drakes) have hideous damage from (I think) a skill called ‘retreat’. It seems so out of line with their other attacks and the champion drake that I suspect it may be bugged, but iirc that suspicion isn’t exactly new and the idea (along with their damage) was around when SC first appeared.

-veteran karkas’ rolling attack hits objects and continues rolling in place, applying knockdown and damage for the duration. Stability and/or invulnerability is pretty much necessitated here (maybe a very tanky necro could DS through it?) or you are at best downed, at worst killed, depending on how durable you were and how long it had left on the roll.

-young karkas’ spit and slice attacks when they’ve been promoted to champion are ridiculous. One of these downed me in an instant from full health (I’ll be more specific when the combat log is), which is cheap enough already when their super-powered attacks are no more telegraphed than regular young karkas, but becomes utterly rubbish when it’s buried in effects for the whole fight (and it would be with the kind of health any karka has…) and the servers are… how to put it… ‘feeling under the weather’.

-in addition to pure damage, I think generally speaking the tendency to just throw control skills on pretty much any mob in the zone is probably not as exciting for the people who die before they can get up again – and right now they’re not in too short supply from what I’ve seen – nor is it a particularly enthralling experience being pushed, pulled, or squashed, and sitting around waiting until you can do things again.

Actually, being saturated in control effects just isn’t enjoyable in general. If you can avoid it no difference is made, if you’re constantly stuck in it until death it’s frustrating, and if you have the resilience to ride it out and save some stability just in case (i.e. my approach right now) it’s tedious.

Fun fact: while I was writing this post, I was informed twice over teamspeak that in my AFK spot I was being attacked, and when I tabbed into the game in the midst of an event (riot of some kind) I was actually pretty healthy and managed to fight to the end of the event… though a bunch of people who had been actively fighting already when I tabbed back in were getting downed. This is a pretty good example of what I see all over the place really: it’s painful and annoying to me, fatal for others.

LameFox.6349:

-veteran karkas’ rolling attack hits objects and continues rolling in place, applying knockdown and damage for the duration. Stability and/or invulnerability is pretty much necessitated here (maybe a very tanky necro could DS through it?) or you are at best downed, at worst killed, depending on how durable you were and how long it had left on the roll.

The rolling veteren karka can eat all the way through my death shroud and my entire health bar in just a second or two. I had 25000 health and my full death shroud and it downed me instantly with its roll. The Karka are the most ridiculous enemy I’ve ever seen in this game. I can understand them knocking you down and dealing a lot of damage – but the amount they can do is just ridiculous.

I remember back in November during the Lagged… er Lost Shores event and the Karka were in Lion’s Arch… They were invisible from culling and instagibbed so many people. Even without the skill lag and culled Karka, it would have been horrendous to deal with – as is evidenced by this new event in Southsun Cove.

dodge maybe?

This is why I giggle whenever someone says GW2 favors melee.

The monsters are lvl82, as in they will kitten you in large numbers like the drake’s do. I’m also pretty sure the veteran karka’s are supposed to be a team effort.

Drake flat out kills my ele in one hit with that retreat move. Learning to cut huge swathy paths away from them

So goshdarned glad I just levelled my Engie to 80 and put the 1500 range grenade trait on.

Enjoy the aggro, hack n slashers!

While I agree with most of your post, the rolling attack really isn’t a problem for any player used to the Karkas. It deals a lot of damage yes, but can be easily dodged or even side-stepped if you start moving as soon as the start-up animation begins. People just need to watch out for it and the other 2 dangerous attacks the Karkas have.

Safe afk spots arent designated as such, outside of cities you can always assume to be at risk because even spots where no regular or event enemies appear might have a player run by with a near enough mob that attacks you instead of reseting. So that part of the complaint is just venting.

The rest is opinion of course, mine is that the game is too easy as is and difficulty like this is welcome. That it is artificially inflated by lag or pc performance is unfortunate though.

The only change from Anet’s side I want in this regard is a graphics option to limit or reduce skill particle effects so you can better see whats going on in a fights with many players.

iTB.1428:

dodge maybe?

The only one of these things which is consistently obvious in practice (as in through effects, etc) is the veteran karka’s roll. Coincidentally, the thing I described where it snags on something and keeps rolling in place also makes it much harder to dodge, because it covers a wide area and is no longer moving.

This is assuming you don’t get knocked out of dodge due to lag, which, naturally, is worse when things like this are drawing so many people to one zone.

Neare.9703:

I’m also pretty sure the veteran karka’s are supposed to be a team effort.

I think you’re missing the point. I’m not complaining that they can’t be solo’d (they can – though it’s even more a waste of time than usual) or that they aren’t dying (they are), the problem is that their ability is – and has always been – poorly thought out. It makes no difference how many people are there if it ends up applying all of what is supposed to be a long path of damage and knockdown right on top of you.

Wolfheart.1938:

While I agree with most of your post, the rolling attack really isn’t a problem for any player used to the Karkas. It deals a lot of damage yes, but can be easily dodged or even side-stepped if you start moving as soon as the start-up animation begins. People just need to watch out for it and the other 2 dangerous attacks the Karkas have.

Assuming low latency and no server lag, sure. I’m sure they thought that about a lot of this game when they were designing it under those conditions.

Mastruq.2463:

Safe afk spots arent designated as such, outside of cities you can always assume to be at risk because even spots where no regular or event enemies appear might have a player run by with a near enough mob that attacks you instead of reseting. So that part of the complaint is just venting.

Venting about what? Other people dying while I can tab back in and fight to the end? I’m not that empathic. Being AFK wasn’t even the point, if I cared about that I would have moved after the first time. I mentioned it because I found it quite succinctly summed up how easy my durability makes things for me compared to many other players, and so if I’m finding things deal dementedly high damage to my character it’s probably far far worse for a lot of people.

Mastruq.2463:

The rest is opinion of course, mine is that the game is too easy as is and difficulty like this is welcome. That it is artificially inflated by lag or pc performance is unfortunate though.

The only change from Anet’s side I want in this regard is a graphics option to limit or reduce skill particle effects so you can better see whats going on in a fights with many players.

No, the game is definitely very easy for the most part, but that’s not really my point. Difficulty does not need to be (and should not be) annoying and cheap. When you have a drake flattening people by looking at them funny, a veteran karka snagging on terrain and spending the duration of a roll on someone’s head, or a champion young karka using super-enhanced attacks no more easily seen than those a normal young karka has (whilst in the midst of a swarm of effects due to being group content, and there being multiple people present) to outright kill a character quite stronger than what most people will be using… it’s lousy gameplay.

Having control effects spammed at you is much the same. Even when it doesn’t make it hard, it’s not fun, just irritating. Take the sonic periscopes for example. Even in high level zones, on my warrior, they’d sooner throw me out of their own range than kill me. Their damage was pathetic. But getting knocked over every few moments or stopping to swap in three different kinds of stability was more bother than they were worth – just needless irritation.

for Guild Wars, Anet got a lot of inspiration from Magic the Gathering (too bad they weren’t bold enough to follow it more closely, but thats a post for a different time).

One thing Magic developers realized was that players find it unfun when he/she doesn’t get to play his/her cards.. that’s why they got rid of a lot of their land control cards. Anet should realize that multiple seconds of control is, in the same way, not fun because the player can only sit there helpless while his/her skill bar is blacked out.

Another thread complaining about difficulty….
First it was world bosses in BW, then dungeon explorables, then Orr and now SC. What next ?

What is silly in all of this is we keep seeing large amounts of threads complaining about the lack of challenge whatsoever and ,still, people keep whining about the remaining small amount of content that could be seen as challenging (I wouldn’t even include SC in it btw, except maybe the JP).

LameFox.6349:

Fun fact: while I was writing this post, I was informed twice over teamspeak that in my AFK spot I was being attacked, and when I tabbed into the game in the midst of an event (riot of some kind)

In all fairness, the only truly safe areas are major cities. If you afk in any other PvE zone you’re fair game! I’m happy to accept this, and sometimes they get me too, if I decide to gamble.

Minos.3450:

Another thread complaining about difficulty….
First it was world bosses in BW, then dungeon explorables, then Orr and now SC. What next ?

Well, personally, I hope it’s Cantha.

Reef drakes are the most annoying especially in events if they come mixed up with some other mobs(like lots of karka). Doing confusion and pulling you which means tons of CC and you can’t do anything besides watching your health go down and watching the others around dying. They quite often wipe even big groups.

Really? Devs have to design around playing the game with heavy lag and latency? How about we let the Karka just stand there and die like 90% of the mobs currently around?

The Karka mobs are awesome, the roll is pretty easy to dodge and it is an amazing and fair way if mobs dealing with huge zergs that just stand and nuke, more stuff like this in the game, not less!

I’ve been struggling in this area too, I’m new to the game and have tryed a few classes out, so when I entered the zone I was on my level 22 ranger (boosted to 80 by the zone).

It’s great that lower levels and newer players can take part in this with the boost, however tyring to solo anything even a normal ranked mob is leads to death more often then not,

Not complaining, it’s great to be there, but the balance from the lower end of the boost is not great, unlike in PvP where everyone has the same gear, here I’m still in my lvl 18-22 gear with less stats to boost than others.

LameFox.6349:

Fun fact: while I was writing this post, I was informed twice over teamspeak that in my AFK spot I was being attacked, and when I tabbed into the game in the midst of an event (riot of some kind) I was actually pretty healthy and managed to fight to the end of the event… though a bunch of people who had been actively fighting already when I tabbed back in were getting downed. This is a pretty good example of what I see all over the place really: it’s painful and annoying to me, fatal for others.

That’s probably because that event dishes out confusion and the enemies have retaliation. Don’t pay attention to this and you’ll down yourself. Upscaled players not used to all the conditions can easily down themselves, especially with burst skills. I had to be very careful as a FT engi.

Salahn.8256:

It’s great that lower levels and newer players can take part in this with the boost, however tyring to solo anything even a normal ranked mob is leads to death more often then not

You’re being upleveled for the event. So why are you trying to solo mobs rather than running with a group for DEs and doing the event stuff? I understand wanting to explore and being forced into combat at times. But combat is only a part of this event. Most of it is just running.

Seras.5702:

LameFox.6349:

Fun fact: while I was writing this post, I was informed twice over teamspeak that in my AFK spot I was being attacked, and when I tabbed into the game in the midst of an event (riot of some kind) I was actually pretty healthy and managed to fight to the end of the event… though a bunch of people who had been actively fighting already when I tabbed back in were getting downed. This is a pretty good example of what I see all over the place really: it’s painful and annoying to me, fatal for others.

That’s probably because that event dishes out confusion and the enemies have retaliation. Don’t pay attention to this and you’ll down yourself. Upscaled players not used to all the conditions can easily down themselves, especially with burst skills. I had to be very careful as a FT engi.

This is a problem with Southsun and not with the event. It caters towards players with reflect, for the most part, and so players who aren’t used to modifying their builds for new zones will find great trouble in this area. That, and not all classes have a lot of reflects.

I think also the lag is a problem… they are tons of players at the map and even small mobs – considering they are that strong and stroner than your usual mob – can be a problem with skill lags.

Sarie.1630:

In all fairness, the only truly safe areas are major cities. If you afk in any other PvE zone you’re fair game! I’m happy to accept this, and sometimes they get me too, if I decide to gamble.

Are people incapable of reading past that point or something? I don’t care that I was attacked there, that’s not why I mentioned it.

Wolfheart.1938:

Really? Devs have to design around playing the game with heavy lag and latency?

Yes. This is not a FPS where you pick the nearest server out of hundreds scattered around the world, they have two groups in two places and that’s it. Unless they’re not expecting traffic outside of Texas and Germany, they should absolutely be designing around realistic conditions.

Gathslan.1870:

The Karka mobs are awesome, the roll is pretty easy to dodge and it is an amazing and fair way if mobs dealing with huge zergs that just stand and nuke, more stuff like this in the game, not less!

Who ever said anything about removing it? It becomes ridiculous because it hits objects/terrain and stops, but without ending the roll, and sits there dealing all the remaining damage/cc which should have been spread over the entire distance in one place. Sort of like how the shockwaves in MF would occasionally multi-hit people for ridiculous damage, instead of each wave striking once. It was stupid, but it doesn’t mean all shockwaves are evil and must be hunted down and killed.

Esplen.3940:

This is a problem with Southsun and not with the event. It caters towards players with reflect, for the most part, and so players who aren’t used to modifying their builds for new zones will find great trouble in this area. That, and not all classes have a lot of reflects.

Granted most of this is inherent to the zone,* but I’ve been content to ignore the fact that it exists most of the time because there was no more reason to be there. Since they’ve decided to draw people – including those below 80 – into the area for the event, it seemed like a good time to bring up some issues with it.

*Not sure about the champion young karka, I think that might’ve been an ‘enraged wildlife’ thing. I forget the exact description of the event now.

Strategy my friend.

Karka are extremely vulnerable to reflected attacks – mesmer, guardian, warrior(?), ranger – are well set in that department, to a lesser extent engineer and elementalist.

Veteran karka (as in, the adults) have never been intended as solo fodder. I mean, look at the size of those things. Baby karka are a cakewalk once you learn to recognise their telegraphs; veteran babies are always a challenge but are soloable with experience.

Remember how when GW2 launched Ettins probably flattened you til you understood their telegraphs? – Or how people complained them mobs in Orr are overpowered? – Same applies here. New enemies, new situations, new telegraphs to learn.

I spent a fair while exploring Southsun by myself after Lost Shores and karka are very much soloable once you practice and understand the fights; just like every other mob in the game.

Few tips:
- If you don’t immediately close to melee, the babies will open with their acid spray attack. You must dodge or reflect it as it’ll do huge damage, but reflected it can knock off ~60% the babies health.

- If the adult karka use their acid spray it’ll leave big green patches on the floor; stay out of these as they will melt your face.

- Adults can evade by jumping and rolling, if you see them hop up, dodge out the way quick.

- Veteran babies can bullrush like arisen abominations; knocking over anything in their path. Having skills to cloak or stunbreak can be useful for avoiding being jumped while on the floor.

- it’s preferable to avoid fighting in melee, their melee attacks are less predictable than their acid spray.

- Adult karka tend to favour ranged attacks, so attacking in melee or ranged is equally valid provided you stay aware of the acid pools on the floor

Ryuujin.8236:

Strategy my friend.

Karka are extremely vulnerable to reflected attacks – mesmer, guardian, warrior(?), ranger – are well set in that department, to a lesser extent engineer and elementalist.

Veteran karka (as in, the adults) have never been intended as solo fodder. I mean, look at the size of those things. Baby karka are a cakewalk once you learn to recognise their telegraphs; veteran babies are always a challenge but are soloable with experience.

Remember how when GW2 launched Ettins probably flattened you til you understood their telegraphs? – Or how people complained them mobs in Orr are overpowered? – Same applies here. New enemies, new situations, new telegraphs to learn.

I spent a fair while exploring Southsun by myself after Lost Shores and karka are very much soloable once you practice and understand the fights; just like every other mob in the game.

Few tips:
- If you don’t immediately close to melee, the babies will open with their acid spray attack. You must dodge or reflect it as it’ll do huge damage, but reflected it can knock off ~60% the babies health.

- If the adult karka use their acid spray it’ll leave big green patches on the floor; stay out of these as they will melt your face.

- Adults can evade by jumping and rolling, if you see them hop up, dodge out the way quick.

- Veteran babies can bullrush like arisen abominations; knocking over anything in their path. Having skills to cloak or stunbreak can be useful for avoiding being jumped while on the floor.

- it’s preferable to avoid fighting in melee, their melee attacks are less predictable than their acid spray.

This isn’t a thread about things being impossible to beat. Even the champion hiding in a swarm of people and effects which downed me instantly was killed (and I’m not sure how dodging or reflecting the attack I couldn’t see coming would have helped. I actually had my shield and mace – traited so both blocks reflected – equipped at the time. Useless if I can’t even see it’s using a skill, nevermind on whom). My complaints here are directed at things that are needlessly annoying.

Getting zapped to zero health by a tiny champion buried in effects is irritating, whether or not you win. The windup to its attack suited the damage the attack initially had, on a creature with the health it initially had. A young karka which wasn’t a champion would almost never be so difficult to see anyway because there’s no reason for so many people to swarm it, and if they did, it would be dead very fast. If they’re going to promote it to champion they should just give it some AOEs or something to deal moderate damage to the groups that will probably be fighting the group-content, not supercharge it so it sits there getting hammered but occasionally picks one person to annihilate.

Pay attention, do something other then stand in one spot and spam hundred blades, dodge occasionally; win.

My thief has like 14k health and 2k armor and I have only died once in about 8 hours of play there. I just wish the rest of the zones were like this, it makes the game so much more fun when you can’t just smash your face into the keyboard.

bring a mesmer, like me traited and built for reflect and retaliation and just watch big groups kill themselves, freaking awesome.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Pay attention, do something other then stand in one spot and spam hundred blades, dodge occasionally; win.

My thief has like 14k health and 2k armor and I have only died once in about 8 hours of play there. I just wish the rest of the zones were like this, it makes the game so much more fun when you can’t just smash your face into the keyboard.

‘Pay attention’ says the n’th person to make a pointless reply unrelated to what I’ve said.

Not counting the nosedive into lava for the achievement I’ve died… maybe twice? Once that I remember, and I think the rest was just being downed. This thread is about things being annoying and tedious, not unbeatable. People are apparently having trouble with this concept.

…and why would I make a resilient build only to put a greatsword on it?

Because it’s resilient enough not to need additional defenses?

Personally, I can recognise the point – there is a distinct difference between ‘hard’ and ‘aggravating’ (as well as there being a distinction between ‘challenging’ and ‘Fake Difficulty’).

Ryuujin.8236:

Veteran karka (as in, the adults) have never been intended as solo fodder. I mean, look at the size of those things.

It’s certainly doable, though. Mind you, so are some champions elsewhere – and things on Southsun are generally a step up from what you’ll find in most other places.

(Reef Riders, to be honest, are probably most in need to a rethink – they take forever to kill and represent very little threat back. I’ve taken to simply ignoring them because even if I’m harvesting nodes around them they’re not really worth the time it takes to kill them, and from what I’ve seen I’m not the only one. This could be because I’m not a glass cannon, and glass cannons might actually find them to be interesting opponents, but generally I just find the only challenge they represent is not getting bored before they finally die)

Arenanet, you guys. You create an enjoyable game and then create these hardcore monstrosities almost as if you’ve got split personality.

We’re not all zerker geared. We’re not all in ascended. We don’t all play guardians. None of us enjoy being CCed and tossed around repeatedly.

Stop it.

I like the guys that steal boons. Nothing beats 2 minutes of regeneration and 1 minute of stability on a thief

But yeah… I did the usual dagger storm + signet of malice combo into some drakes and instasplat.

I honestly enjoy the difficulty of this content; it’s sort of like a throw-back to some of the more difficult areas in GW1.

In order to succeed in Southsun you need to dodge and at least someone, preferably multiple people in your group, need to have boon removal/corruption in order to remove retaliation, in particular, and regeneration. Furthermore, you also need at least one skill with condition removal in order to prevent confusion from murdering you in the case of the Drakes.

If you see the Drakes turn around and run (clarification: the drakes turn around, not you), dodge; it will let you evade most of the damage if you’re quick enough. You then just have to remove the confusion and you’re good to go.

As for the Veteran Karka, those are meant to be a group endeavor, although I’ve seen people solo them before. They’re more akin to Champions than they are Veterans.

LameFox.6349:

-veteran karkas’ rolling attack hits objects and continues rolling in place, applying knockdown and damage for the duration. Stability and/or invulnerability is pretty much necessitated here (maybe a very tanky necro could DS through it?)

Why not just dodge through it? There are other ways to mitigate and avoid damage in this game, not just going full tank and hope that your health pool is large enough to go “through it”. Karkas and drakes can kick your butt, but they can’t one-shot you, and more often than not it’s quiet obvious what’s coming your way, so in my experience usually if i die to them it’s either my fault or just bad luck, kitten happens, but imo it’s better that way. Make their damage and mechanic trivial and faceroll while trying to not fall asleep? No, thank you.

I tried this revamped Southsun Cove today. I wanted to collect the samples. Before this event I hadn’t played on Southsun Cove very much, I remembered annoying karkas, nearly no events and nothing to do or achieve.

Now I see even more annoying karkas. As guardian with reflection skills I can kill the first two or three but they seem to have super-aggro now. Also waypoints are inconveniently placed, lots of pointless walking around.

For me this Living Story part is even worse than the first two parts of F&F. I will ignore it.

draxynnic.3719:

Because it’s resilient enough not to need additional defenses?

But also gains much of its damage output from two traits each buried 20pts deep in strength and arms, so going away from those its effectiveness drops off pretty sharply. I much prefer to keep my axe as the offensive option which leaves behind a crit bonus it wouldn’t get much use out of with PTV gear anyway, and doesn’t have/need any c/d reductions because the auto attack gives it its dps and evis is buried deep in that other traitline. That way I can use axe/wh and mace/shield with both of the latter traited and reflect plenty of karka spit back into their ugly faces, then hit them with stun/daze and switch to hack the rest into harmless little pieces and get the +10 power they owe me for having so much health and such lousy loot.

wasted.6817:

LameFox.6349:

-veteran karkas’ rolling attack hits objects and continues rolling in place, applying knockdown and damage for the duration. Stability and/or invulnerability is pretty much necessitated here (maybe a very tanky necro could DS through it?)

Why not just dodge through it?

You read that I’m talking about specific cases where it sticks on an object and continues the entire roll in place, right? It’s not exactly obvious where this will happen if you’re not standing right up next to a massive wall, and it applies to a large area. If you try to dodge in such a way that you’d normally pass through because it keeps on moving – but it doesn’t – you will be knocked down repeatedly until it ends. Even a stunbreaker alone will not help, hence stability or invulnerability.

In the majority of cases when it begins to roll I dodge aside and (if it was even going to me in the first place) it just goes past. Or if there’s no time (as I said it covers quite a bit of space) I’ll try to dodge into it and come out the other side. With my current build the normal roll is survivable anyway, and only a brief knockdown, so who cares.

This is not about these typical cases, it’s about the times it will sit on people and keep squashing them for ages, where they can’t get out unless they’ve got a skill which is both stunbreak and stability (I carry balanced stance around them) and due to the damage you can’t really get in to keep them from being killed if they get downed either. It’s annoying, crappy gameplay, and probably not even intended besides.

It’s a L2p “issue”, sorry but it’s true. I was roaming around Southsun before the update getting waypoints and I was soloing adult veteran karka (I should try to solo the champ one), champion drakes, veteran reef riders, no problem. I’m pretty sure the drake in the SS is actually a champion not a veteran.

P.S I’m a warrior.

P.P.S To be honest, Southsun mobs need a buff.

Edit : The word “issue” was being censored.

Nihevil.8024:

It’s a L2 kitten ue, sorry but it’s true. I was roaming around Southsun before the update getting waypoints and I was soloing adult veteran karka (I should try to solo the champ one), champion drakes, veteran reef riders, no problem. I’m pretty sure the drake in the SS is actually a champion not a veteran.

P.S I’m a warrior.

P.S.S To be honest, Southsun mobs need a buff.

Post script script?

Congrats on being the latest in a long line of people who completely missed the point of this thread.

Minos.3450:

What is silly in all of this is we keep seeing large amounts of threads complaining about the lack of challenge whatsoever and ,still, people keep whining about the remaining small amount of content that could be seen as challenging (I wouldn’t even include SC in it btw, except maybe the JP).

What is silly is people inflating the strength of their position by claiming that “large amounts of threads” support it. Make your point without utilizing silly claims that you don’t back up. I could say that there are more complaints about difficulty than there are about “too easy,” but I won’t because I’d be pulling “facts” out of my kitten, like you did.

And, no, I’m not here to complain about SSC being too difficult, so don’t assume I disagree with you except about your unsupported claim.

LameFox.6349:

Actually, being saturated in control effects just isn’t enjoyable in general. If you can avoid it no difference is made, if you’re constantly stuck in it until death it’s frustrating, and if you have the resilience to ride it out and save some stability just in case (i.e. my approach right now) it’s tedious.

This is ANet. Going back to GW1, the use of conditions and control effects is practically ubiquitous, just as it is in GW2. Having to build to counter such is fine. What does get annoying, though, is mobs that spam a condition or have a CC on a very short CD, so that once you’ve blown your counter, the CC or condition will just be reapplied instantly.

Mastruq.2463:

The only change from Anet’s side I want in this regard is a graphics option to limit or reduce skill particle effects so you can better see whats going on in a fights with many players.

TBH, I think this would at least remove some of the justification for saying stuff is too hard. I did a DE in Lornar’s last night where the animations used by the named mob (something the Chucker) were difficult to see from all of the particle effects. There were two players, including me.

LameFox.6349:

draxynnic.3719:

Because it’s resilient enough not to need additional defenses?

This is not about these typical cases, it’s about the times it will sit on people and keep squashing them for ages

As i said, either your own fault or bad luck. If you got caught by this attack, in most cases, it’s your fault, and if you got caught by it in such place… well, then it’s also a bad luck on top of it, and i’am guessing it happens rarely, i didn’t experience anything like that so far. Imo it’s fine and i see veteran karkas going down so fast some times, when there’re like ~8-10 ppl around, that there’s just not enough time for it to perform anything, it just dies.

IndigoSundown.5419:

This is ANet. Going back to GW1, the use of conditions and control effects is practically ubiquitous, just as it is in GW2. Having to build to counter such is fine. What does get annoying, though, is mobs that spam a condition or have a CC on a very short CD, so that once you’ve blown your counter, the CC or condition will just be reapplied instantly.

The latter is what bothers me, not that they exist at all. Sometimes they seem to get this idea in their heads that sitting around watching the game do things while nothing but the camera controls work will make for fun and exciting gameplay… but it doesn’t. The only thing separating games from really terrible films with built-in chatboxes is having control of something. Taking that away should be done very sparingly and with great caution, not applied with earth-moving equipment and fine-tuned with a hammer.

wasted.6817:

As i said, either your own fault or bad luck. If you got caught by this attack, in most cases, it’s your fault, and if you got caught by it in such place… well, then it’s also a bad luck on top of it, and i’am guessing it happens rarely, i didn’t experience anything like that so far. Imo it’s fine and i see veteran karkas going down so fast some times, when there’re like ~8-10 ppl around, that there’s just not enough time for it to perform anything, it just dies.

You’ve never seen it happen and you think it’s fine? Well okay then. Good for you I guess.

LameFox.6349:

IndigoSundown.5419:

This is ANet. Going back to GW1, the use of conditions and control effects is practically ubiquitous, just as it is in GW2. Having to build to counter such is fine. What does get annoying, though, is mobs that spam a condition or have a CC on a very short CD, so that once you’ve blown your counter, the CC or condition will just be reapplied instantly.

The latter is what bothers me, not that they exist at all. Sometimes they seem to get this idea in their heads that sitting around watching the game do things while nothing but the camera controls work will make for fun and exciting gameplay… but it doesn’t. The only thing separating games from really terrible films with built-in chatboxes is having control of something. Taking that away should be done very sparingly and with great caution, not applied with earth-moving equipment and fine-tuned with a hammer.

If the Karka death roll pinning you is the only reason why you made this thread, then may I suggest, at the risk of sounding cliche, that you don’t put yourself between a Karka and a hard place. The solution’s quite simple, I think you’ll find; when a Karka rolls towards you, make sure there isn’t an environmental pathing blocker behind you.

I’ve yet to see this happen anywhere where a pathing blocker is not involved; they don’t just roll in place for no reason.

News Flash: Southsun monsters require a certain amount of tactical thinking.

This isn’t new, they’ve been this way since the island was introduced. They’re really not that hard once you learn to fight them, just like the molten alliance special mobs that seemed godlike until you figured out their mechanics.

I feel for LameFox. There is a major lack of reading comprehension in this thread.

Asbrandr.6324:

If the Karka death roll pinning you is the only reason why you made this thread, then may I suggest, at the risk of sounding cliche, that you don’t put yourself between a Karka and a hard place. The solution’s quite simple, I think you’ll find; when a Karka rolls towards you, make sure there isn’t an environmental pathing blocker behind you.

I’ve yet to see this happen anywhere where a pathing blocker is not involved; they don’t just roll in place for no reason.

-it isn’t. As I said in an earlier reply, it rarely happens to me anyway. But why should it happen at all? Charging attacks that hit immovable objects should stop there, whether running or rolling, not just perform a the whole attack in place.

-the AI in this game isn’t exactly all-terrain. There are a lot of weird places a thing will stop where it looks like reasonably it shouldn’t.

PopeUrban.2578:

News Flash: Southsun monsters require a certain amount of tactical thinking.

This isn’t new, they’ve been this way since the island was introduced. They’re really not that hard once you learn to fight them, just like the molten alliance special mobs that seemed godlike until you figured out their mechanics.

-well that’s not a very good newsflash then…

-they don’t, anyway. Nowhere have I said they were hard to kill; that is not the point.

panzer.6034:

I feel for LameFox. There is a major lack of reading comprehension in this thread.

…and now some mod has apparently skimmed over it the same way and edited the title. LOL.

Way to make the thread actively misleading, moderators!

Any sympathy for necros? We have a bit of condition removal to deal with these mobs but that’s it. No reflection as far as I know. I have quite a bit of trouble dealing with almost all of the mobs, even the regular wind riders have an abnormally high amount of health and deal about 1.7k damage per hit to me. I can’t dodge every single projectile

They’ve been the same since last November. The veteran karka only roll if there are ranged attackers. Stack on it and you’ll just get the regular attacks plus the double stomp. If it does roll for some reason, you can dodge through it.

Regular karka you just need invulnerability of reflect. Reflects really hurt them when the spit is sent back at them. This is one of the reasons why mesmers are the best at farming

Feelm.1938:

Any sympathy for necros? We have a bit of condition removal to deal with these mobs but that’s it. No reflection as far as I know. I have quite a bit of trouble dealing with almost all of the mobs, even the regular wind riders have an abnormally high amount of health and deal about 1.7k damage per hit to me. I can’t dodge every single projectile

Necros are severely lacking in a lot of areas, by design at that. Unfortunate side-effect of the game being balanced around PvP. You also only have two skills that grant stability… which are both elites… and can trait for a whopping three seconds of it entering DS.

The only luck I’ve had is staying completely ranged with drakes and blinding their attack where they whirl around, stack confuse and pull you in (most times in to that confusion gas puddle) That pull/confuse combo is instant death.

Karka I thought were near impossible without reflect until I learned you can wiggle-step it like the guardian scepter. http://youtu.be/lSJ0pqRwjuU

bravoart.5308:

The only luck I’ve had is staying completely ranged with drakes and blinding their attack where they whirl around, stack confuse and pull you in (most times in to that confusion gas puddle) That pull/confuse combo is instant death.

Karka I thought were near impossible without reflect until I learned you can wiggle-step it like the guardian scepter. http://youtu.be/lSJ0pqRwjuU

Drakes will waddle up to you, get within range, and begin to attack. If you just dodge back whenever they pause to do something, they never attack in range of you and just die harmlessly.

edit: I estimate their range at about 600 based on out-ranging it with a non-traited longbow on my warrior.

I’ve been running my warrior through the Southsun stuff, generally having a pretty good time, but every now and then… egad.

So I went to that place with the big wall near the breezy rider pools, intending to go through the wall (all in all) in search of a sample thingee, when suddenly three karkas attacked. Okay, fight, fight, fight. No problem. Now, onward to – woops, here comes two more. Sigh, well, okay. Fight, fight, fight. No problem. Now, back to – wait, what? FOUR more? Oh, come on. I’m not exactly Batman here, ya know. :-P

But, ah, some bat wings would be cool. Ahem.