Guild Wars 2

Im a level 66 right now and have been wondering if when I get to the zhaitain personal story mission will it be possible for me to defeat this boss by my self or do you have to do it in a party with other players?What level is zhaitan for that matter?80?

Because my tactic for completing the story missions is to level up a few past the required level thats needed in order to play that mission so any bosses I face during it will be easy to defeat solo.

Thanks.I havnt played any dungeons yet so I didnt know.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

It’s a dungeon, so it’s not soloable,

Which sucks hugely and is a nasty surprise for those who didn’t realise GW2 was a ‘forced grouping’ game at the point it matters.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

It’s a dungeon, so it’s not soloable,

Didn’t stop certain people from soloing Lupus.

Zaitan, possibly. But you’d never actually get to him to try.

Kraggy.4169:

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

It’s a dungeon, so it’s not soloable,

Which sucks hugely and is a nasty surprise for those who didn’t realise GW2 was a ‘forced grouping’ game at the point it matters.

It’s an MMO, how could you possibly miss that?

Iruwen.3164:

It’s an MMO, how could you possibly miss that?

This answer pops up on a routine basis Iruwen. Frankly that’s not an answer at all. MMO’s long ago moved beyond the point of forced grouping for anything and there’s good reasons for that as well. In fact this game goes a long ways towards avoiding grouping throughout the leveling process in a variety of ways. Also consider just why mmo’s don’t require grouping on quests/events/missions/stories like this any longer — games have a definite life cycle and if you miss out on one of the large waves you can easily be left unable to complete your personal story.

During this game I usually rarely see other players out in the PvE world and rarely hear any lfg broadcasts for anything other than fractals. I could go on but it’s very early out here and it’s time for my morning run before I go to bed.

I think it would be pretty much impossible to solo. You might be able to manage Zhaitan by yourself with the cannons, but I think the bigger problem would be the mobs that come on the ship during various stages of the dungeon. There are a lot of them, and they hit pretty hard.

I say that as someone who has solo-ed the rest of the personal story. The last dungeon is different than the story missions, because it’s designed around a full party. Even the hardest prior story missions are designed with the solo player in mind, so the challenge is on a different level.

Also, if you complete Zhaitan below level 80, don’t you miss some part of the reward?

You cannot pass the first real even solo anyway. You need two players to stand on two switches at the minimum.

Kraggy.4169:

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

It’s a dungeon, so it’s not soloable,

Which sucks hugely and is a nasty surprise for those who didn’t realise GW2 was a ‘forced grouping’ game at the point it matters.

Yea this seriously ticked me off and created a great deal of distrust with any further PvE content. I mean you go all the way to the end capable of soloing and then BAM …you must group.

Played a lot of MMOs with PERSONAL storylines and never had one that forced you to group to complete your PERSONAL storyline. Basically its wasted space I’ll never experience I can tell you that.

Sureshot.6725:

I mean you go all the way to the end capable of soloing and then BAM …you must group.

Personally I wouldn’t mind having to group. If the last mission was like the very first one you do after character creation where you fight a big boss with other players, it would have been awesome.

What made me throw the towel is that the group content is a full-fledged dungeon, and I just can’t stand the way dungeons work in this game. (If you remove the trinity, replace it by something that’s at least as good…) With that on top of the Trehearne issue, I lost the desire to complete my story.

Which is a bummer because it was one of the features I was really really looking forwards to in this game. With the sheer amount of feedback this forums get though, I think they’ll figure out what needs to be adjusted to make a more satisfying story mode in the future expansions.

Iruwen.3164:

Kraggy.4169:

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

It’s a dungeon, so it’s not soloable,

Which sucks hugely and is a nasty surprise for those who didn’t realise GW2 was a ‘forced grouping’ game at the point it matters.

It’s an MMO, how could you possibly miss that?

If people miss that they’ve never played an mmo game before -.-’

Kraggy.4169:

Which sucks hugely and is a nasty surprise for those who didn’t realise GW2 was a ‘forced grouping’ game at the point it matters.

If you’re so opposed to playing with others, why are you playing this game? It’s never been advertised as a single player game.

Shimond.2478:

Kraggy.4169:

Which sucks hugely and is a nasty surprise for those who didn’t realise GW2 was a ‘forced grouping’ game at the point it matters.

If you’re so opposed to playing with others, why are you playing this game? It’s never been advertised as a single player game.

I don’t know, I like playing with others and I like dungeons a lot, but I kind of feel like I should have finished my personal story alone. You’re portrayed as the hero all throughout your personal story, you’re commander and second-in-chief, you fight off hordes of risen and other threats in Trahearne’s shadow… and right when your moment of glory finally comes, some random Asuras and a fat Norn step in and steal the show. Who are these people? Who invited them? Why are they raining on my parade?

I guess Anet wanted to be sure we all did at least one dungeon instance, but I might have kept the final slaying of Zhaitan as a solo instance. It’s a pretty big immersion breaker to have people that already know what they’re doing and what’s about to happen guide you through the last chapter of your personal story.

Well to be honest I think Zhaitan should have been a world event consisting of tons of players, but since they decided to make it a personal story thing I don’t really have a problem with them requiring just 5 people. I mean…this is an elder dragon.

Shimond.2478:

If you’re so opposed to playing with others, why are you playing this game? It’s never been advertised as a single player game.

You do realize you can play with others in an MMO without being forced to group and do a dungeon to complete your supposed PERSONAL storyline.

There is all kinds of content, particularly in this MMO, where you can play with others without being forced to group such as the heart and DE systems not to mention WvWvW.

The issues here is a PERSONAL storyline that runs through about 20 different questlines that are all soloable and then the last one suddenly requires a dungeon run and forced grouping.

How does that make any sense?

Quote:
It’s extremely important that we stay true to our philosophy that you should be able to play Guild Wars 2 the way you want to play the game
~Colin Johanson

I didn’t mind grouping up for the final story. I found some nice people to run it with.

I was very disappointed that my character wasn’t in the cutscenes of this final dramatic mission, though. It made me feel like an NPC, just silently tagging along.

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

I didn’t mind grouping up for the final story. I found some nice people to run it with.

I was very disappointed that my character wasn’t in the cutscenes of this final dramatic mission, though. It made me feel like an NPC, just silently tagging along.

+1 to that!! That was a big disappointment, made me feel like a tag-along in my own personal story. The Charr that ended up in the cutscenes was actually the only one in our party who had already been through it

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

It’s a dungeon, so it’s not soloable,

Then how do you explain the nerfs to the Zhaitan fight I describe in this post: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Post-patch-Zhaitan-Beyond-unacceptable/first#post1351271

I could have literally soloed the encounter. Unacceptable.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

It’s a dungeon, so it’s not soloable,

While I think the last Boss in the entire game shouldn’t be soloable, maybe you should have made it like the first instance in the game were all characters/players who are on that go to that instance, you did however let people down by advertising that you did not want to force players into running dungeon content/grouping to experience the story, and then you force them to do just that. Story mode dungeons should be Soloable but with minimal loot reward and then if you want to up the difficulty and offer better rewards for exploreable versions go ahead. Or at least implement a Looking for group fuction because like other players have complained about you really only find groups for running fractals.

We need Henchies …

Mr Quinn.9815:

We need Henchies …

I’d love henchmen to return, but used just to solo story mode for no rewards so those that never want to do dungeons can still experience the lore and finish their personal story. Most of the game doesn’t need henchmen though like GW1 did. Did enjoy having deeper personal characters however. Didn’t care about the characters in this game at all.

I’d love to have henchmen available for instanced tasks. They wouldn’t be necessary (or make sense) in the open world, of course.

I completely have an issue with this. I just completed 100% of PvE and now cannot even finish the game without joining up with people. BTW, NO ONE ever wants to join up to finish the story.

It’s horrid.

And the instance itself sucks. It was very clear that they designed the bosses with the standard trinity in mind.

And there was no explanation given as to why you don’t attack Zhaitan with the entire Pact since that was the only reason why the Pact was formed in the first place. You finish the last mission with the Pact getting ready to assault Zhaitan, all the airships are being prepped, the guns manned, the entire camp is in a bustle and then nothing. You get a random pug together and slog through a dungeon with poorly designed encounters when you should have been leading the Pact stationed on the lead airship.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

It’s a dungeon, so it’s not soloable,

Most unfortunate. The entire story is all about uniting the races and creating this uber pact. Only at the end this uber pact is no longer sufficient to defeat the monster that provides them with the very reason for them to become a pact in the first place.

I think this should be changed. All of the other parts of the story were just fine solo, why must the end suddenly require help? I get that you guys are after a social experience, but this is my PERSONAL story All about me. Which I LOVE, by the way. I just hope you see my point and perhaps make a change to this?

Thanks!
-Mog

Mogturmen.2638:

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

It’s a dungeon, so it’s not soloable,

Most unfortunate. The entire story is all about uniting the races and creating this uber pact. Only at the end this uber pact is no longer sufficient to defeat the monster that provides them with the very reason for them to become a pact in the first place.

I think this should be changed. All of the other parts of the story were just fine solo, why must the end suddenly require help? I get that you guys are after a social experience, but this is my PERSONAL story All about me. Which I LOVE, by the way. I just hope you see my point and perhaps make a change to this?

Thanks!
-Mog

It doesn’t require help. It is a complete deviation from the story up until that point in time and absolutely zero reason is given for this deviation.

Shimond.2478:

Well to be honest I think Zhaitan should have been a world event consisting of tons of players, but since they decided to make it a personal story thing I don’t really have a problem with them requiring just 5 people. I mean…this is an elder dragon.

So you have no problems with only requiring just 5 people to kill Zhaitan but seem to take offense to the idea that it could be done with 1 person and 20 NPCs?

Sureshot.6725:

Kraggy.4169:

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

It’s a dungeon, so it’s not soloable,

Which sucks hugely and is a nasty surprise for those who didn’t realise GW2 was a ‘forced grouping’ game at the point it matters.

Yea this seriously ticked me off and created a great deal of distrust with any further PvE content. I mean you go all the way to the end capable of soloing and then BAM …you must group.

Played a lot of MMOs with PERSONAL storylines and never had one that forced you to group to complete your PERSONAL storyline. Basically its wasted space I’ll never experience I can tell you that.

Agreed. Everything else is scalable, why cant the dungeons be scalable for a solo person? Or at the very least, Arah should have a special instance for the completion of the personal story…you know like the instances FOR EVERY OTHER MISSION in your personal story.

Yes its an MMO, fine. And actually I am fairly pleased with all other areas of the game, but to require you to find a group for your personal story completion was a poor decision IMHO. Getting groups together in GW1 was a pain, as it is in GW2. I have no inclination to wait around for hours for a group of unknowns , not knowing if one of those in the group will simply bail out somewhere along the line.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

It’s a dungeon, so it’s not soloable,

This may be true for Arah Story, but there are several dungeons soloable.
Just check this playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCU1Y-AORphhLRqXkbuUGfit11BYmpBCr
Spiky.8403 also soloed all 3 paths of TA so dungeons are indeed soloable, just not all of them

Shimond.2478:

Kraggy.4169:

Which sucks hugely and is a nasty surprise for those who didn’t realise GW2 was a ‘forced grouping’ game at the point it matters.

If you’re so opposed to playing with others, why are you playing this game? It’s never been advertised as a single player game.

Okay, I’ll do it with a buddy. Oh wait. It’s a dungeon and I need a full group? kitten that. bad design is bad. Period.

Every MMO out there I can go 1-cap without being FORCED to group. I can’t do all the content, but I can do all of “my” story (for those MMO’s that have such a thing).

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

It’s a dungeon, so it’s not soloable,

From: http://www.gw2bnc.com/2012/04/guild-wars-2-something-for-everyone-almost/

The Solo Player

The solo player has become an important audience for modern MMOs. It has become nearly impossible for a MMO to succeed if they leave out the solo player. They are everywhere in today’s online world.

One of the common misconceptions about the solo player is that they want to play the game entirely alone. I do not believe this is the case and I think Guild Wars 2 will prove this point. The solo player does not mind working with other players to achieve goals, they simply do not want to go through the hassle of finding a group, creating a group or dealing with the drama that can come from being in a group. They just want to play, on their own time and in their own way.

Luckily, Guild Wars 2 will give this type of player all the content they need. The Dynamic Events will allow this player to join or leave at their convenience. They will get a “group-like” experience without the hassle of actually joining one. They will be able to jump in, play as long as they like and then leave without having to notify anyone of their comings and goings. They can play on their own time schedule, while still enjoying the benefits of a group.

In addition, if they truly want to play alone they will have their own Personal Story to work through. This feature will give them hours of play time to work through while leveling and no additional players are needed.

Guess I shouldn’t have believed the hype.

RayKoke.1638:

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

It’s a dungeon, so it’s not soloable,

From: http://www.gw2bnc.com/2012/04/guild-wars-2-something-for-everyone-almost/

The Solo Player

The solo player has become an important audience for modern MMOs. It has become nearly impossible for a MMO to succeed if they leave out the solo player. They are everywhere in today’s online world.

One of the common misconceptions about the solo player is that they want to play the game entirely alone. I do not believe this is the case and I think Guild Wars 2 will prove this point. The solo player does not mind working with other players to achieve goals, they simply do not want to go through the hassle of finding a group, creating a group or dealing with the drama that can come from being in a group. They just want to play, on their own time and in their own way.

Luckily, Guild Wars 2 will give this type of player all the content they need. The Dynamic Events will allow this player to join or leave at their convenience. They will get a “group-like” experience without the hassle of actually joining one. They will be able to jump in, play as long as they like and then leave without having to notify anyone of their comings and goings. They can play on their own time schedule, while still enjoying the benefits of a group.

In addition, if they truly want to play alone they will have their own Personal Story to work through. This feature will give them hours of play time to work through while leveling and no additional players are needed.

Guess I shouldn’t have believed the hype.

slow clap

Well Said !!!

But, then again why should any of the Dev’s care? They do already have our money. Very politician like behavior, say anything to get into office (get people to buy the game) and then ignore all your promises after the election (game launch)

Ironically, the ending boss fight of the Arah dungeon (which is Zhaitan) is actually soloable, but the previous dungeon fights and trash is not.