im having big difficulties with the personal story quest “Breaking the Blade”.
when you need to defend the building, a few bandits come in.
the first 2x that 2 bandits come in aren’t hard to pass.
but the 3rd one, when the doc howler comes in, is simply not able!
the bandit that comes with doc howler is very easy, but doc howler itself has a lot of health, not able to been killed.
that plus she almost one shots me.
this makes me not able to get pass this quest and really makes me angry and makes me wanna quit this game.
please fix this huge problem or help me get pass it.
Why is it you have to have help? I am 13 lvls (3 above) above the 10 for this. I have the highest gear I can find and Doc Howler still waxes the floor with me. When she shoots she does not miss unless she is stunned. On pistol whip she breaks it instantly. I just think this should not be a 10 lvls instance maybe a 12. I have tried different weapon combos but nothing is working. I am at the point that playing a thief is impossible to pass this. I just bought this game and this type of poor char balance makes me want my money back.
Why is it you have to have help? I am 13 lvls (3 above) above the 10 for this. I have the highest gear I can find and Doc Howler still waxes the floor with me. When she shoots she does not miss unless she is stunned. On pistol whip she breaks it instantly. I just think this should not be a 10 lvls instance maybe a 12. I have tried different weapon combos but nothing is working. I am at the point that playing a thief is impossible to pass this. I just bought this game and this type of poor char balance makes me want my money back.
C’mon don’t be a baby. You encounter a challenge and you already give up? It’s certainly not impossible. Countless people beat that story-mission with a level 10 thief just fine. You’re just one of the very few who fail. If your tactic doesn’t work it’s time to try a new one.
Here’s how you do it as a thief: Use double-dagger to define your weapon skills and if you have the skill-points unlock “Roll for initiative” and “Caltrops” for your utility skills.
Start the fight by spending all your initiative on death-blossom followed by caltrops->roll for initiative->more death blossom and she will die on heavy bleeding damage in no time.
This is just one method to do it. I’m sure there are many more ways to beat doc howler and other people can give you different or even better advice.
Since when are games supposed to be for sleepwalkers? Be glad there’s a challenge every now and then.
So I am a baby. I have tried p/p, s/p, s/d, d/d, p/d. I get beat every time. I am not sleepwalking this I am now 15 level I have all blue armor blue weapons. I have tried redoing my traits I still can not beat this part. I have tried this instance over 20 times now. And I am giving up? Just because you hit on a combo that works stop thinking it is easy.
I tried the suggest to use pistol whip. That didn’t work. So I’m I to believe that you little idea works BS. I am just tired of getting my kitten handed to me my this part.
So I am a baby. I have tried p/p, s/p, s/d, d/d, p/d. I get beat every time. I am not sleepwalking this I am now 15 level I have all blue armor blue weapons. I have tried redoing my traits I still can not beat this part. I have tried this instance over 20 times now. And I am giving up? Just because you hit on a combo that works stop thinking it is easy.
I tried the suggest to use pistol whip. That didn’t work. So I’m I to believe that you little idea works BS. I am just tired of getting my kitten handed to me my this part.
My idea definitly works. That’s exactly how I did it.
Have you tried it?
Remember: you’re one of the FEW who fails at this step. The majority of the players managed to do it. I have great faith in you that you’ll succeed. Good luck and don’t give up!
You’re suffering from thief syndrome. It’s really easy to die as a thief if you don’t focus on evading damage.
I can add on top of what my forespeaker said:
My thief is dual gun, and a off hand gun has great ability – black powder shot.
It blinds your opponent, and creates a field around you that will make your regular shots blind her each time you fire, and regenerates very quickly. You will have access to that blind most of the time.
Also you can go into stealth and fire regular pistol shot for awesome 5 hit 5 stacks of bleeding combo
I also chose the path where Quinn dies. Had alot of trouble granted I am lvl 9. But I followed what the previous mentioned and went d/d and bought a couple of cheap runes that added condition dmg + blood duration. Stacked Death blossom twice, then used Roll for initiative and continued to use death blossom and evasion and she died fairly quickly.
This was a challenge for me as well at the appropriate level on my Thief. I eventually got past it by using Sword/Pistol. The only skills I used were the sword auto attack, the #5 skill Black Powder, and the Hide in Shadows healing skill. I saved my initiative for Black Powder shots and used it whenever it was available. Hide in Shadows helped alleviate some of the pain of the poison damage Doc deals. The blinds from Black Powder really help reduce the damage Doc Howler deals. You can run outside to line-of-site Doc if you need some time for initiative to regen.
I’ve checked out Two-Blade Pete, and he’s a standard “veteran” level creature (with reduced damage.) So he should be soloable, though you might need to adjust your build/tactics to take him out. Basically, he’s roughly the same difficulty as a same-level skill challenge. I’ve personally beat him with an equal-level thief, making sure I didn’t use any traits/skills I wouldn’t have access to at that level.
I’ve checked out Two-Blade Pete, and he’s a standard “veteran” level creature (with reduced damage.) So he should be soloable, though you might need to adjust your build/tactics to take him out. Basically, he’s roughly the same difficulty as a same-level skill challenge. I’ve personally beat him with an equal-level thief, making sure I didn’t use any traits/skills I wouldn’t have access to at that level.
I thought the OP’s issue was with Doc Howler, not Two-Blade Pete…
To be fair, when I hit this point, I was still really new at the game, as my Thief was my first and primary character. I was nowhere near as good as I am now. However, this particular encounter with Doc Howler improved my play quite a bit, as I died several times and had to adjust my play style and weapon choices in order to advance. Most of the difficulty from Doc Howler comes from her poison damage, I think, and at such a low level, you might not necessarily have good condition removal. It’s nice not being able to mow everything over every now and then, helps keep the skills sharp.
To be fair, when I hit this point, I was still really new at the game, as my Thief was my first and primary character. I was nowhere near as good as I am now. However, this particular encounter with Doc Howler improved my play quite a bit, as I died several times and had to adjust my play style and weapon choices in order to advance. Most of the difficulty from Doc Howler comes from her poison damage, I think, and at such a low level, you might not necessarily have good condition removal. It’s nice not being able to mow everything over every now and then, helps keep the skills sharp.
Sounds like she uses pistol engineer attacks, and Poison Dart Volley can actually hurt quite a lot if you stay in melee range without dodging any of the darts. A dodge to the side or even behind can leave her open to attack with no real reprisal as PDV takes a rather long time to finish.
To be fair, when I hit this point, I was still really new at the game, as my Thief was my first and primary character. I was nowhere near as good as I am now. However, this particular encounter with Doc Howler improved my play quite a bit, as I died several times and had to adjust my play style and weapon choices in order to advance. Most of the difficulty from Doc Howler comes from her poison damage, I think, and at such a low level, you might not necessarily have good condition removal. It’s nice not being able to mow everything over every now and then, helps keep the skills sharp.
Agreed on the poison thing. At least Thief starts with a way to removed it(Hide in Shadows), I don’t think all professions have that. I remember barely getting by on my thief. Might have had to retry once. The other issue with poison other than the lack of condition removal is that at this early point in the game the player may not yet be aware of the fact that it also reduces the effectiveness of your heal. What that translate into is that you need to start using your heal skill earlier than “usual”.
The fight with Doc Howler is kitten. Whoever designed Doc Howler and thought it was ok to give a Veteran mob a poison that lasts for 30 seconds and another stacking poison was a fool of the worst kind. Nothing about this fight is fair or well balanced and nothing about “learn to play your class” will do squat against an encounter like this that isn’t fair for the player when it uses mechanics that the player cannot effectively overcome, especially because she is a ranged veteran mob with undodgeable unavoidable damage.
To begin with no Veterans or Champions should ever be made into ranged mobs with unavoidable damage, but furthermore no NPC should ever be able to apply nonstop poisons and debuffs that last for much longer than the debuffs the player can apply to the NPC.
Luckily you can cause her to get stuck in the stairs because otherwise I could not have finished this poorly designed piece of kitten quest.
…. furthermore no NPC should ever be able to apply nonstop poisons and debuffs that last for much longer than the debuffs the player can apply to the NPC…..
I do think the duration on Howler’s poison can be reduced a bit—it pulses up to 5x for 5s of duation each (so it can apply 25s of poison total) but the 5 pulses appear to take place VERY quickly, making it next to impossible to avoid the whole hit. That being said, I’ve managed to beat this with a L10 thief, elementalist, and engineer, so I don’t think it’s “impossible.” To be fair, I’ve obviously played this game a lot, but I really don’t use any crazy dev tricks or cheats when I test for difficulty. I found Elixer B to be quite helpful for taking Howler down, since it boosts your damage and hurts her every time she hits you.
I’m not sure if I did this or not (did the human noble and street stories) but I’m guessing that there’s some mechanic people are taking for granted that you may not be aware of. I’ve leveled 4 characters completely through the personal story and my thief’s on the lvl76 stuff now (one of the easier classes to level…x/p may be a little OP but w/e).
Message me in game and if I’m free I’ll help you through it though I’d hate to rob you of a learning experience (though that may sound condescending, I still learn stuff about the game after 1100+ gameplay hours).
I tend to be on early morning and early evening (MST) during most of the week so message me.
Count me in as another one of Doc Howler’s victims. I don’t understand why this fight was made to be so difficult (this is beat your head against the wall frustrating…). but I will say if I can’t kill this obviously poorly designed encounter, I’m retiring my thief and possibly just quitting the game entirely, that’s how stupid this encounter is. And I want to say that I’ve been playing MMOs for over 13 years and many stealth classes in that time and there hasn’t been a single thing even that even comes remotely close to this Doc Howler fight in any game I’ve played, except for trying to solo dungeons in WoW…that’s what this reminds me of.
Ah, sorry, I checked the story boss. I checked Howler as well, same story. He’s a veteran, with reduced damage.
The problem is she poisons you,and bleeds you,(Which last forever) and her rate of fire is obsured. Not to mention in the previous mission you had beat her and you had captain Thackery and a group of Npcs with you here it’s just you and her, with no way for my engineer to remove those i dodged twice effectivly and then watched my health dissapear that and i think thers is a bug because several times it displayed my healing skill refilled my hp(the default elixer) and then I was down with the next hit, she must have swiftness too because she on you wicked fast. while for an expert like you it won’t be hard but for a noob who is still learning the class mechanics(this is level 10 after all) she definatly OP
I think that if we had to create a measure of what constitutes acceptable challenge and what constitutes poor game design it would be thus:
An acceptible challenge is where the player comes away from a defeat thinking that if they had done X instead of Y at time t then they might have had a shot.
Poor game design is where the player comes away from a defeat thinking that there was nothing they could have done to change the result.
This is clearly a case where I came away thinking that there was nothing I could have done to change the result and therefore falls into the category of poor game design.
I never played this storyline but now I’m incredibly curious to do so given people think it’s so tough. =D Sounds fun! -rolling a human alt for this story when I get home-
I’ve hit some tricky storylines too but hang in there and keep trying – I know this sounds stupid and eyeroll-worthy but you really do learn a ton about your profession this way. I will say that it seems this might be a bit difficult for someone brand new to GW2 as one of their first experiences with story quests.
I’ve hit some tricky storylines too but hang in there and keep trying – I know this sounds stupid and eyeroll-worthy but you really do learn a ton about your profession this way. I will say that it seems this might be a bit difficult for someone brand new to GW2 as one of their first experiences with story quests.
The only thing I learned was that NPCs can get stuck in stairs.
When an NPC does an imbalanced amount of unavoidable damage there is nothing to be learned but how to overcome frustration when one is made powerless. And to be quite frank I do not feel such a function is appropriate for a video game developer.
I just finished this mission/quest/part of personal story/whatever you want to call it, with a level 10 thief. However, it was extremely frustrating without the use of caltrops and alot of conidition based attacks. I tried it with s/p but that didn’t work too well. Blinding power uses up too much initiative and after that, there wouldn’t be any initiative left to use any skills. Nevertheless, there was a nice trick I found, with the use of the column inside the tavern that has two tables around it. I ran in circle spamming one and use my caltrops for the cripple and bleed, and while behind the column, Doc Howler’s attacks were obstructed. In addition, this also took me out of the immersion in the game due to the frustration (beat it on my 4th try).
I’ve mostly played pvp and I’ve gotten quite good at my thief after playing 600 games with it, so I knew what build to follow. If I had tried d/d or p/d with condition gear, I’m sure I would’ve had it on my try. Anyways, it really sucked that I had to switch weapons just to beat this.
I just finished this mission/quest/part of personal story/whatever you want to call it, with a level 10 thief. However, it was extremely frustrating without the use of caltrops and alot of conidition based attacks. I tried it with s/p but that didn’t work too well. Blinding power uses up too much initiative and after that, there wouldn’t be any initiative left to use any skills. Nevertheless, there was a nice trick I found, with the use of the column inside the tavern that has two tables around it. I ran in circle spamming one and use my caltrops for the cripple and bleed, and while behind the column, Doc Howler’s attacks were obstructed. In addition, this also took me out of the immersion in the game due to the frustration (beat it on my 4th try).
I’ve mostly played pvp and I’ve gotten quite good at my thief after playing 600 games with it, so I knew what build to follow. If I had tried d/d or p/d with condition gear, I’m sure I would’ve had it on my try. Anyways, it really sucked that I had to switch weapons just to beat this.
WHen I did it the column did nothing to stop the attacks.
…I’ve managed to beat this with a L10 thief, elementalist, and engineer, so I don’t think it’s “impossible.” To be fair, I’ve obviously played this game a lot, but I really don’t use any crazy dev tricks or cheats when I test for difficulty. I found Elixer B to be quite helpful for taking Howler down, since it boosts your damage and hurts her every time she hits you.
You “managed”, eh?
Well, according to YouTube, soloing Lupi is not “impossible” either. However, we’re talking a level 10 quest here, of which no other equivalent level 10 quest boss is even remotely this difficult. Making a fight that makes people want to break things in real life at level 10 is not exactly a smooth learning curve.
Not trying to be a jerk, but I don’t think I’m the only person who ever came across this fight and thought “never again”.
I wish I knew about this mission and thieves but . . .
. . . have you considered “Prayer to Kormir” to remove those conditions which are killing you quickly?
As a ranger, I’d probably go for “Signet of Renewal” which drops a condition every 10 seconds or it will shove them all onto your pet. Which you can then hit F4 and swap out, I think, to wipe them away.
I’m tempted to roll up a human street rat thief just to try out this fight straight-up without over-leveling more than 3 levels or getting gear from outside sources. I’m pretty sure it can be done, though it reminds me of another personal story boss.
(Charr, second chapter, “Honorable Sire” path, the warrior ghost champion at the end required me to go for lots and lots of blocking to keep up with him after he flattened Rytlock.)
Seeking assistants for the Asuran Catapult Project. Applicants will be tested for aerodynamics.
There are what I like to think of as a couple of “trial by fire” moments for each prof. / Story combo that I’ve seen so far, and these really are the bits that make the game fun for a lot of us.
Casual Vs. Hardcore aside, there are some EXPERIENCED gamers, and some plain old good gamers out there who are happy trudging through the extended tutorial that is personal story (or most pre-80 content), that hit “nightmare” like encounters, and took a step back. This one wasn’t the worst either.
For every person unhappy with hard difficulty and imbalance in this game/encounters there is another loving it, and another who is sleepwalking through it (and still doing better than all of us).
Feeling bad due to my response does not mean it was a personal attack.
It may just be that your original statement was wrong.
Please try again.
For every person unhappy with hard difficulty and imbalance in this game/encounters there is another loving it, and another who is sleepwalking through it (and still doing better than all of us).
I’m pretty positive that there are more who are unhappy than there are who sleptwalk through this one.
And the game can’t be balanced around the best players, that would quickly become untenable.
I remember doing this quest with a (pistol/dagger) thief (which I incidentally deleted later due to my altoholicism) I tried every strategy and died multiple times and didn’t play that character for at least a week because I was dreading attempting that quest again. When I came back to it later I decided to upgrade all my armor/weapons before trying it. After doing that, it still wasn’t easy but it was doable. Definitely one of the more challenging quests I’ve done in this game and I’ve leveled a Norn Ranger to 80.
For every person unhappy with hard difficulty and imbalance in this game/encounters there is another loving it, and another who is sleepwalking through it (and still doing better than all of us).
I’m pretty positive that there are more who are unhappy than there are who sleptwalk through this one.
And the game can’t be balanced around the best players, that would quickly become untenable.
Pretty sure based on what? The fact that the sleep walkers are all out and awake talking about the challenge? Or that the moderate middle of the player base ALL came out in force with a threadnaught? Oh wait – nope – we have a couple of people who were unduly challenged in their opinon, who could have checked out some strategy guides or videos, called out for a hand, or analysed the encounter and attempted a different approach (more gear/level + same approach is kiddie kitten).
Balancing a game around the best players doesn’t work, but nor does balancing it around the stubborn worst (GW2 isn’t doing either). I spent thirteen years of schooling waiting for the moderate middle to catch up while watching the bottom of the barrel suck up all the resources, I would hate to have yet another game do the same thing and reinforce this culture of accpting and rewarding mediocrity.
Feeling bad due to my response does not mean it was a personal attack.
It may just be that your original statement was wrong.
Please try again.
For every person unhappy with hard difficulty and imbalance in this game/encounters there is another loving it, and another who is sleepwalking through it (and still doing better than all of us).
I’m pretty positive that there are more who are unhappy than there are who sleptwalk through this one.
And the game can’t be balanced around the best players, that would quickly become untenable.
Pretty sure based on what?
The simple fact that there are always fewer at than in the middle or at the bottom.
And this quest isn’t balanced around the best, middle or worst. It is simply a really cheap, unfair, OP dot whose basic function essentially means that this encounter is completed more out of sheer luck than player skill. The dot was unavoidable and got constantly and almost immediately reapplied at the stack limit, the mob’s ranged damage was unavoidable. There really were no options offered to the player other than hope for the best. If the boss was created in such a way that you could avoid the dot or her normal damage by pillar humping maybe that would have been an ok if completely overused mechanic, but you could not do that here.
Ah, sorry, I checked the story boss. I checked Howler as well, same story. He’s a veteran, with reduced damage.
Answered.
I can solo a veteran + some other mobs too at once (1-4) as a thief.
Everything depends on your gamestyle and profession.
I mean a necromancer with 6 minions wouldn’t have a problem to do it.
And in that lvl he would have about 3 minions.
Well, I took an ele (a class I suck at) and equipped 2 Cure Condition utilities.
I sat back and Quinn solo’d her.
Actually, in all seriousness, I only had to use one of the CCs and finished her off first time. I agree it does take some preparation to think of using a CC (and this game really needs a tutorial…) but she went down much easier than Pete in the same story or Riot Alice in the story where you fight her in the hideout.
Well, I took an ele (a class I suck at) and equipped 2 Cure Condition utilities.
I sat back and Quinn solo’d her.
Actually, in all seriousness, I only had to use one of the CCs and finished her off first time. I agree it does take some preparation to think of using a CC (and this game really needs a tutorial…) but she went down much easier than Pete in the same story or Riot Alice in the story where you fight her in the hideout.
This is good to read and useful information.
. . . but most of the problems are being had with a Thief.
Seeking assistants for the Asuran Catapult Project. Applicants will be tested for aerodynamics.
A thief’s standard heal, Hide in Shadows, cures bleeding, poison and burning
Why are people struggling with a poisoner?
I might make another thief, JUST to try this. If I recall correctly, my first time round (as a noob to GW2 and to all MMOs) I was downed, retried from checkpoint, and finished it second try.
A thief’s standard heal, Hide in Shadows, cures bleeding, poison and burning
Why are people struggling with a poisoner?
I might make another thief, JUST to try this. If I recall correctly, my first time round (as a noob to GW2 and to all MMOs) I was downed, retried from checkpoint, and finished it second try.
The other thread about this quest was about a thief having the trouble. Hide in Shadows is one thing, “Prayer to Kormir” also dumps 3 conditions. I’ve not yet played a thief but I’m seriously considering it at this point.
Seeking assistants for the Asuran Catapult Project. Applicants will be tested for aerodynamics.
A thief’s standard heal, Hide in Shadows, cures bleeding, poison and burning
Why are people struggling with a poisoner?
I might make another thief, JUST to try this. If I recall correctly, my first time round (as a noob to GW2 and to all MMOs) I was downed, retried from checkpoint, and finished it second try.
Because the NPC nearly instantly reapplies all the conditions as soon as they are removed.
Do you seriously think that we are struggling with something so stupidly simple as choosing whether or not to use the heal that cures conditions when we are having problems specifically because of the conditions?
. . . have you considered “Prayer to Kormir” to remove those conditions which are killing you quickly?
…
Which has a 40 seconds recharge while “Poison Dart Volley” has 10 seconds.
I haven’t played this step, since I wasn’t a Street Rat, but the thief should have enough options to extend that 10 second window after managing to take care to survive it. Or interrupt it.
Seeking assistants for the Asuran Catapult Project. Applicants will be tested for aerodynamics.
Apparently there are enough people having real problems with Doc, especially if you decided to sacrifice Quinn. You end up soloing EVERY mob including Doc…Thackary remains hidden. Yes, folks familiar with MMOs might not have a problem with going at her until you find the solution, but I figure most casuals and first-times will eventually say “The heck with this” and leave. At least for the first 10-20 levels you kinda want the experience to be one of “It was a bit of a challenge but doable” rather than “It’s too much time and trouble for just beginning this game and if it’s this hard at lvl 10, it’s gotta be hell at end-game.”.
Not a real good way to get new players to stick around. It may gall some hardcore players and those that took the effort and time to finally find the system to beat her, but she really needs a bit of a nerf .
Interesting. It’s been a while since I did this one. I did that on my thief as well. I think I mostly spammed death blossom a did a lot of running around the tavern to avoid damage.
How about this: If anyone having problem with this boss, add me and if I’m online I can go into the story with you and see what she’s like because it was probably last year that I did that story. Hopefully I can come up with something helpful :P
