Guild Wars 2

For what it’s worth, I’m happy to party up for any personal story segments people need an extra level 80 Ranger to help with. I don’t promise success and I’m not an elite player or anything, but I made it through my own story solo and I have decent gear, so I should be able to help make a dent in the tougher stuff. Low level missions are fine with me.

I’m on Crystal Desert server, and will be willing to guest once guesting is enabled. My main character’s name is the same as my account name.

Feel free to whisper me if you need me. I may occasionally be too busy to help, but 90% of the time what I’m doing is interruptible and I can come buddy up.

Some of you people are really irritating. A personal story is just that PERSONAL STORY.. You should not have to get help, you should be able to do it solo at any lvl with minimum difficulty. It is also so that you can see the story play out. I have ran into several steps in my story that was very difficult and ridiculously unrealistic. Sorry, but a army of 10 is not going to beat a army of 50+ risen and unlimited supply of giants. Taking anyone in your story should be for only 1 reason and that is just to play together, not because you could not beat it. And if they take out the unlimited rezing, then I will not do anymore of my personal story. Some of you people needs to understand what personal story means. It does not mean dungeon therefore it doesn’t need the difficulty of one. I do my story to see it play out, not to get stressed over the overwhelming odds which happens and then it’s no longer fun. So all you people stating you had no problem with your story are either lying or deluding yourself. Nobody’s avatar is a god in the game. If you did any part of the story I have done and tell me you had no problem I’ll know then you are lying.

You really need to step back and think what you just posted. The personal story was never easy to complete but i no means un-soloable. There are many variables in why some people find it easier to do than others including current gear, weapon setup, traits and utility slots. These all place a major hand in the difficulty of the quests and it is up to the individual to adapt to their situations.

I died many times in the first 20-30 odd levels. But I soldiered on and found the missions easier to deal with as I get better at the game. Maybe it is a learn to play issue, who knows but you should consider looking at your own character before making such remarks. I agree that a few areas maybe overtuned but not enough to ruin the whole story. The only part that actually requires a group was the last mission and that is one mission out of god knows how many there are.

It’s a combination of build X of class Y being suboptimal. I exclusively play ranger and thief. After a couple of weeks of trial and error in PvE, I can occassionally solo even group events. Those same characters can also do very well in WvW. However, if I try to take them into a story, the results are vastly different. Personally I dislike resorting to “tactics” like kiting, or abusing a rez allowance that’s obviously only there as a bandaid to the inconsistent design; but even in full cheese mode, it’s not worth the grinding just to get past a badly thought-out, one-size-fits-all encounter.

It boggles my mind that the story missions — whether the number or type of spawns, and/or their AI — can’t take into account the player’s class (or build, but that’s asking too much).

Godzillathon.8052:

The point, Blue, is that we shouldn’t have to. These are supposed to be quests and events that we can complete SOLO as part of our PERSONAL story. The fact that they cannot reasonably be completed without either chain rezzing or bringing friends goes against the spirit of what the personal stories are supposed to be.

It’s not a matter of “why not”, it’s a matter of “we shouldn’t have to”. Personal story difficulty needs to be significantly nerfed. If the elitist jerks want to think they’re too easy, fine. For the rest of us, with a normal level of skill, we have issues. This is not a game that is intended for only the “leet” to play. This game is intended for EVERYONE. Right now, the so-called elites are the only ones not having problems with the difficulty.

Assuming you believe them when they say that. I, for one, take “too easy” comments with a grain of salt, simply because I don’t see how it’s possible.

Just my 2 copper. Your mileage may vary.

Using caps to try to get your QQ point across more. Priceless.

The hardest two I’ve had thus far when just before joining the Vigil when I discovered the “secret weapon”. 5-6 normals, and a vet that spawns adds. Ugh. Thankfully I have that NPC to /squish… well I had an NPC. Respawn charge. Respawn charge.
The second one was actually taking on the “secret weapon”. Infinite adds. Eventually I just got tired of the respawn charge and ran though to beat up the weapon which kills all enemies anyway. Even the Engie enemy and his turrets.

Most of the missions are tuned to be difficult, but I don’t get downed if I’m aware. Some seem to need … I dunno, they’re overtuned it seems.

I am a lvl 10 charr thief using lvl 8-10 armor, double pistols and shortbow with Assassin’s and Infiltraitor’s Signets skills. I’ve been reading through this post, thinking that some of you are complaining to much when I go and do the PS quest ‘Iron Grip of the Legion’. I die twice, once because the boss guy kills me, then because I die and can’t rally because I just killed the boss. I think ‘well that was slightly hard but then it was a lvl eight quest and I’m a lvl 7’. So then I go do the ‘The Flame Advances’. A lot harder, but then there are a lot of mobs, and I only have Clawspur and Sicacea as backup, and I lost Clawspur’s body briefly and got lost several times because I didn’t check my map. I was lvl 8 for that and died 10 or so times. Then I leveled to lvl 10 and tried to do ‘Quick and Quiet’. Now I see what you guys mean when you say these quests are sometimes way too difficult to solo. I have 4 NPCs (Rytlock, Clawspur, Samona and Yahuk). I managed to kill the first group using the trolls, but the second group is almost un-doable. I would go in start kiting while most of the mobs chased me, waiting for my heal skill to finish cooling down. Then the NPCs would die within like 30s and then I’d die. Respawn, rez at least one 1 NPC, they go and start fighting, brings down 5 or so mobs down on my head, die rinse and repeat. The worst thing was that the Flame Legion Bladestorms can regen health, meaning that I can’t chain rez and kill them. I haven’t finished it yet, had to get off the computer, and am currently on my laptop, but I will try and complete it when I get the chance. Has anyone had problems with this quest? I know I’m a low lvl, but dying 20 times (not kidding I counted) is not fun, and all the thieves on this post say they had heaps of problems, and that thieves are squishy and under-powered. I’m going to stop now before I start ranting. Devs, don’t make them easier, but make it the same difficulty on all races, professions and builds. I love thieves, but I don’t want to have to quit the personally story because it’s a hell of a lot harder on them than anyone else. Though eles, mesmers, and engineers have it bad too, because we’re the four squishiest classes in the game. All you who soloed it without any problems are either elitist jerks, MMO vets, very good players or average players who happened to pick either warrior, guardian, ranger or necro, the four strongest classes or are just plain lucky not to have it bug out or every mob aggro on you. So Arenanet, change the story quests difficulty quickly please. And I even read a lot on my class, planned my build and all those other things so it would be easier and I wouldn’t have these problems.

LoL, i’ve done each quests from 1 to 80 alone and with a level under the suggested because they were too easy (and i’m elementalist).
At least they need to increase the difficulty, not decrease.

this is not meant to be an “elitist” jerk response, just some advice. yes i know these quests doNOT scale well with deffernt classes/builds/weapon selection. some classes will do better then others (ie easiser) and i am not saying that is a good thing at all. but to get through them now you may need to think about what weapons and skills you are useing. i used to play a thief, human street rat. got to the level 10 personnel quest and got stuck and couldnt no matter what i tried, get past the story. it was so bad i changed classes. i have however gone back to thief. but this time i new more about the class, the fame and the boons by talking with others and playing more of the game. as a thief one skill/weapon set that makes the game MUCH easier is pistol number 5. if you do dagger/pistol or sword/pistol all the game (pve) is much eaiser. pistol 5, makes a circle that lasts 5 secs, and all the bad guys in circle are blind while inside. this means they CANT hit you. at all. the dagger does great single target damge, the sword is malee aoe. this with the heal skill that stealths you if u mess up is a god send.

only reason why i wrote all that about the thief, is that each class seams to have a “sweet spot” of skills that if you use, makes theings much easier. other builds are MUCH MUCH harder. this is NOT optiomanl, but is the state of the game at this time. you just need to find that balence in your own classes, and it may not be they way you would “prefer”.

but if you think this is bad, just what till you get stuck on all the personal quests that you CANT complete no matter what you do bc the code itself is broken and will not advance, and get told by anet that it does not affect enough players for us to risk brakeing something else. ie 1/6 of the base, bc 3 orders and 2 brances. there are several, so the real numbers are even higher.

My problem with the Personal Story is that the difficulty curve isn’t so much as curve and a line that randomly zigzags. It’s mostly luck in what choices you make and if they lead to ‘that one quest’, as there are quite a few quests which are far harder than the others.

The early human one to stop bandits poisoning the well springs to mind, I did it with a friend and we both had pretty decent gear and we still both died loads to the neverending waves of bandits spawning. The equivalent quests you’d do with the other human origin options weren’t nearly as hard and were much more enjoyable. The worst thing about this is that this quest is a choice, the other option to save your friend was a ridiculously easy quest in comparison.

I also agree that class can alter the difficulty a fair but, doing story quests on my warrior or guardian is a lot easier than on my mesmer or elementalist, even with similar gear and traits.

i have to say that on my norn guardian i did most of my personal story solo If you are having problems try this slow your attacking down to match with the npcs helping you that will spread aggro out a bit and give you the chance to not be overrun with enemies.. When i first started i would go in guns ablazing (so to speak) and have to rez 4 or 5 times before i would get done. now i try to breathe before i do a skill other than 1 and only do my big hard hitters once and awhile to keep a good pace. As of right now i am taking a break from trying to kill “mouth of Zhaitan” i lost my flow and now i deid like 6 or 7 times.

After dying a simply crazy numbers of times and down to my underwear trying to achieve the next step in my personal story I decided to make my next attempt with the help of a friend… still tough but I do enjoy a challenge so it was fun despite the personal being clearly an irrelevant word! However having completed the objectives it then failed to complete so we now both have repair bills for no result! The story title was Dredge Assault.

Thread and the vitriol on both sides of this issue are getting a bit old and people might just want to take a break on it for a bit. the point has been made in multiple lengthy threads by now.

For me, it’s not so much that the content is terribly hard – it’s the only-one-way-works for all professions idea that threatens to break the system.

As mentioned by someone, a profession with no inclination, training or proficiency with a weapon type is forced to use that weapon or the story cannot proceed; the example was a guardian and a rifle. For me, it was a ranger and a golem/bombs. Not only did it make no sense for a Sylvari ranger to morph herself into an experimental golem and lay bombs, she would/did not have the proficiency to do so. (I know, there I go using sense and stuff.) In the end, I was able to forego the stupid golem idea and use basic pulling and strategy to proceed even though the storyline did not recognize the effort, but there are lines where you aren’t given even that leniency.

I appear to be one of the lucky ones who had little difficulty with the Breaking the Blade quest though I did end up retiring the character later. Instead of trying to kill everything that moved, I did the sneaky-sneaky thing with timing and stealth, killing only what had to be killed to get out. Was it easy? Oh heck no. And it took a lot more time than it really should have, given the level and content.

The personal story is NOT about your character, it is a one-size-fits-all-professions bit of story coding that is intended to enliven the game with something more than continual killing of everything that moves. Yes, it would be extremely difficult to have semi-“intelligent” stories that actually reflect any number of personality types. But the current system doesn’t even try. The only storyline that resembles decent is the set of human stories – and even those are rather ho-hum.

I like the Sylvari storylines, and the Charr storyline is interesting so far. I hear that the post-race storylines are boring and immersion-breaking, so I may just skip those. But yeah, the personal story isn’t perfect for every profession. The main quest of an RPG never is. GW2 comes a lot closer than some I’ve played, and isn’t as balanced as others.

I do wish they wouldn’t underlevel you on the personal story instances. That would address most of the complaints about balance in one fell swoop, and would give players a lot more of a sense of progression and control. Just let players take on the personal story as they are. The downside would be that people might just rely on leveling for story missions, wouldn’t get the dodging/skill-use knowledge they need, and then we’re hear even more whining about how impossible dungeons are (they are irritatingly bad, no doubt, but the whining is so over-the-top).

I wish they wouldn’t under-level you, though some people would come in 10 lvls above the required one and own it easy. And for those who care, I finished ‘Quick and Quiet’. I was naked by the end, but I didn’t care.

A lot of heated opinions here.

I have a suggestion to the people saying story missions should be possible to complete solo.
Thats fine, I just want to suggest to you to try team up with others. Please try it.

Recently I was standing at a waypoint after having given up on one of my story missions. Just then a guy comes running asking if I can help him.
Of course I agree. He wants help with a story mission he failed. I end up helping him with three of his story mission in a row, then he helps me with my story mission and we end up upsetting the neighbours quite a lot (trolls mainly)
And we both had a great time.
(Afterwards I realized why that story mission was so hard for me was because i had only a lvl 1 underwater weapon…

/ signed

Thanks OP for stating a fact on the internet .. (never would’ve thought.. )

Only one mission gave me airs, and it was the claw island one. Otherwise imho I didn’t really notice a challenge/

I just did The Battle of Claw Island on my ranger, which is is the second time I’ve done it solo. I’ve done it several times along with guildmates, and alone on my guardian. It’s a breeze with a couple people, and easy enough alone with the use of some rather bad tactics that should never be required.

There is one point that is very broken and poorly thought out. Reviving Mira on the beach is just annoying because she is in the middle of constantly respawning risen. Your order mentor (Forgal/Sieran/Tybalt) is probably going to end up dead very quickly, and Trahearne will die if you waste too much time. Even while your mentor is still alive, reviving Mira will get you a few risen friends. They don’t really hit hard, but you can get into trouble if you get too many, especially if some are the knock-locking Brutes. You will most likely have to abandon your revive attempt a few times to give yourself a chance to heal and distract the horde. This is where the problems start. Having to run in to “revive a little” then retreat (repeatedly) is not fun, it’s just broken. I should never have to abuse the aggro range/AI in order to complete a story quest, but here it is almost a requirement. And to make this annoyance even worse, by the time you’re going back in for your second revive attempt there is a good chance that your mentor and various other fallen allies are very near (if not on top of) Mira, giving you the extra task of getting the right NPC to revive (while you still have risen beating on you).

I do have to add that during my most recent run through this quest, Mira’s body seems to have moved to a slightly more convenient location. Before, she was always on the beach, on the far side of a risen spawn area. Now she is a bit farther up the hill/ramp onto the beach, but at the edge of the risen mob spawning area. She is easier to reach without training aggro along, but I had to revive her with the newly spawned mobs right on me.

The section after this (lighting the beacon) also has some similar issues with respawns. Trying to fight your way to the tower instead of just running should be a bit more of a viable option, but the risens’ quick respawns give you a good chance of having to fight the “same” mob after you have already moved on to the next. This is easily worked around by just running by them all and lighting the beacon. Another tactic, that like the rez/de-aggro/rez, should not be required in order to finish the quest.

Having to resort to tactics like these is just not fun, and I see it as quite an immersion breaker. Although I am not a roleplayer myself, I would imagine moments like this could be very detrimental to their enjoyment of the story quests. I would much rather be in combat trying to figure out how to use my skills to win, versus standing at the top of the hill trying to think of how to abuse the AI in order to win.

I consider the personal story difficulty unacceptably low. I’m constantly making characters interrupt their own lines because I’m doing damage too fast for them to keep up with the dialogue triggers.

I don’t kite, I don’t use special farming builds, I don’t play just one profession with an easy-mode combo, I just trait sensibly and learn to use the effing dodge roll.

Where Mira happens to die makes a huge difference in the difficulty of the Claw Island mission. That single factor pretty much determines whether you will die half a dozen times trying to get her rezzed in the middle of an endlessly spawning mob of Risen, or whether you can just slip around behind and get her back to the fort.

I really think the mission needs to be adjusted so that she either dies in the same place every time, or else make the mob not respawn when it’s directly above her.

In my experience most of the storyline quests are on par with difficulty. now, maybe it’s just me, but every time i’m up against Destroyers of Primordus in a storyline quest I get hemmed up. I’m never choosing to help the skritt again, they dig too deep and I get burned. Course, I didn’t have a choice with my sylvari…had to barter for a mirror…

In my experience so far, the personal story has not been that difficult. On my first character (human war), I soloed every single mission with the exception of the final one. Granted, some fights (Eye pre-nerf) took some time, and I died a couple of times but nothing serious. The only times I have had trouble on my later characters was

1) Human ele soloing a lvl 12 veteran engineer spamming bleed+poison darts
2) Lvl 8-9 sylvari thief soloing the Green knight fight

In truth, those were the only times I raged at the high difficulty but overall I don’t think that the story missions are that hard to do at all.

veritech.1048:

marianitten.1247:

I have no problem with any of the personal quest. And i’m a necromancer, the most bugged/broken class in the game( for some )

Thank you for your input, please tell the rest of us what build and storyline you chose so that we can learn from your awesome.

LOL on this. You made my day

This is ridiculous.
You’re complaining that the personal story is too hard for you, yet you refuse to accept any opinion or suggestion except for what you think should be done which is to lower the difficulty for your own standards.
Like anywhere else in an online game, if you have trouble you can either:
- Outlevel the content causing you problems
- Bring a friend or two

The fact that others (quite many in fact) find the difficulty OK shows that its not universally broken. Nobody said that you’re incompetent here, only suggest that you either need to improve or try a different angle to overcome it.

And the fact that its a personal story has absolutely nothing to do with anything. Most of the open world content can be done solo but even I found some Hearts or DEs to be hard and had to wait for someone to help me with it (and no, I don’t mean stumbling on some dynamic group event)- does it mean that its broken because I personally had trouble with it?

I have finally run into a sccenario in my (so-called) "personal story’’ that is vertually impossible to complete solo, even if i die mutiple times. I die, I go back and the big dude (who can wipe your entire group of npc’s in seconds) is standing in the doorway in front of 5 minions of my level. All of the npc’s I need to rezz to have a ghost of a chance are beyond him ( no chance of reaching them at all). I try and they kill me in about a second. I come back and it there he is again in the bloody doorway over and over again. This is my PERSONAL story! I shouldn’t HAVE to share it with a group of other people. Dieing continually is NOT fun and unless the dev’s tone down on the “insurmountable odds” idea they all seem to have, I really don’t think this game is gonna maintain its player base. that would be a shame because the game had such great promise.

The step name is the “ossuary of the unquiet dead” , I have gotten over my mad for now and am going to try it again from the beginning, however, I do think that there should be a solo optoin for the dungeons and the other instanced scenarios. By offering such an option you are catering to a fairly large group of players who enjoy the social part of the game but are still primarily solo players.

I think that it would really be helpful if the NPC’s that were supposed to assist us in these missions were a bit more sturdy. I mean, heck, even a few “red shirts” made it to the end of a Star Trek episode alive, but in this game they all drop like flies, every time.

Even if their damage output wasn’t increased, just increasing their survivability to ensure that there was still some cannon fodder on the field would ensure that all agrro wasn’t focused entirely on you.

Just a thought.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

All of the story steps (except for the very last step) are balanced for solo players.

(snip)

Out of curiosity what was the design decision in making the very last story step in our personal story a group mission instead of a solo mission?

not really expecting an answer but thought i would ask.

nighthawke.3075:

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

All of the story steps (except for the very last step) are balanced for solo players.

(snip)

Out of curiosity what was the design decision in making the very last story step in our personal story a group mission instead of a solo mission?

I would like to know this as well. I’ve seen a lot of discussion about it, so I’m sure it’s something that a lot of people are wondering.

well Jerry, Ossuary is impossible witout a group, I am posting this to say the stupid, stupid idea that everything in the game has to be “overwhemingly difficult” has just done it for me, I may never play this game again and will probably advise anyone who asks me that the game is is built for elite players who think dieing continually is fun. If I have to waste 2 hours a day looking for groups I don’t think I am having fun, and having FUN is what gaming is all about to me. If the game is only frustrating and maddening you might as well play something else.

and yes , only the Prince of the undead , or whatever his name is, gives me any trouble and if he wasn’t absolutly guarding the npc’s bodies that i have to rezz to give me a chance I could most likely do the instance and enjoy it. You say “if the npc’s die”, well the npc’s ALWAYS die because of the great horde of undead that pour into the room to start with.

I just did Ossuary of Unquiet Dead solo last night with my Necromancer. Most of it wasn’t too bad, except for one particular spot. And I believe it’s the same place Ragamok is talking about.

After you follow the ghost around and the door to the lower chambers finally opens, there’s a Champion-level Abomination near that doorway, as well as 5 or so normal enemies at the door way and some Veteran Risen Knights wandering around.

I bumped into the champion Abomination by himself at first and he wiped out all the NPCs aside from Trahearne pretty quickly. Then he started chasing me around single-mindedly. And since abominations are “unstoppable”, it was a struggle just to keep out of its attack range. In the mean time, two Veteran Risen Knights wandered by and settled on fighting with Trahearne. Fortunately I was a condition-based necromancer so I could bleed down the champion while having time to keep kiting it. It certainly wasn’t easy though. And by the time I finished off the Abomination, Trahearne had died. So I had to mop up Veteran Risen Knights myself as well.

I have doubts that every class could have handled that solo, at least not without foreknowledge of it. And meeting that champion-level Abomination at the same time as even 5 regular enemies (as Ragamok mentions) would make it worse.

For what it’s worth, here’s a screenshot from just after both the abomination and Trahearne died.

Ragamok.1905:

well Jerry, Ossuary is impossible witout a group, I am posting this to say the stupid, stupid idea that everything in the game has to be “overwhemingly difficult” has just done it for me, I may never play this game again and will probably advise anyone who asks me that the game is is built for elite players who think dieing continually is fun. If I have to waste 2 hours a day looking for groups I don’t think I am having fun, and having FUN is what gaming is all about to me. If the game is only frustrating and maddening you might as well play something else.

Well Ragamok, I’ve beaten Ossuary solo on two different characters, and once while playing with my wife. Those three runs netted me a grand total of two deaths (once on my solo run on my ele and once in the duo run). The mission certainly isn’t “impossible,” and I’d argue that for some classes it doesn’t even qualify as “moderately difficult.”

Even if you’re finding it difficult, you should be able to beat it in a duo without too much issue, so it’s not like you need to find a full party or anything either. As for finding groups, there’s been a rare instance of a group taking 10-15 minutes to be found and form, so I suspect you’re exaggerating quite a bit if it’s taking you “2 hours a day” looking for groups while playing. If that truly is the case, you might want to take advantage of free server transfers to move to a more populous server.

I soloed Ossuary too.

Here’s what worked for me, hopefully it’ll help you too: You don’t need to fight the majority of the Abominations and Veteran Knights. Just wait until they pass. They move slowly enough that you can get through their path before the next one comes. If you stop to fight, you end up taking too much aggro because it’s hard to kill them fast enough to be out of the way before more monsters come. If you just run by their patrol route after one passes, you’ll find things much easier.

I don’t think this mission is designed for you to fight everything – I think the trick is to time your moves into the next area to avoid combat when possible.

Anakita Snakecharm.4360:

I soloed Ossuary too.

Here’s what worked for me, hopefully it’ll help you too: You don’t need to fight the majority of the Abominations and Veteran Knights. Just wait until they pass. They move slowly enough that you can get through their path before the next one comes. If you stop to fight, you end up taking too much aggro because it’s hard to kill them fast enough to be out of the way before more monsters come. If you just run by their patrol route after one passes, you’ll find things much easier.

I don’t think this mission is designed for you to fight everything – I think the trick is to time your moves into the next area to avoid combat when possible.

Except, of course, when the zero-IQ NPCs decide to fight off-side/wander around and aggro nearby mobs themselves to get the entire party killed. I failed this personal story step twice – one on my Mesmer and another on Guardian before I completed it without said Champion Risen Abomination brutally crushing me (literally) and the whole party in 2 hits in the span of 3 seconds.

Yeah, keep the NPCs well back, and try to stay on the main raised paths when you can to minimize wandering or extra aggro. Remember that the NPCs have wider aggro range than a human player does. The monsters move quite slowly, so stay well away, then go for it once they’re past.

Timing is really key.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

All of the story steps (except for the very last step) are balanced for solo players. Obviously, in cases like the Ossuary it can get really tough if the NPCs die, since it’s expected that they’ll at least act as a speedbump for you. Is it only the final boss that’s giving you problems?

Why is the very last step NOT SOLO-ABLE??? Do i have to get 30+ people just for 1 completion? Oh wait, its bugged anyway

Two other pieces of advice I belatedly thought of for Ossuary:

In between stopping points where Trahearne makes his observations, return to the centre of the wheel, then take another raised path to get to where you need to go… do not take the circular path around the edge. That way you avoid most of the tough foes entirely. The circular path is a shorter distance, but it pretty much guarantees that the NPCs will aggro something. (Or that something will run into you.)

Also, beware of knockback. The first time I tried the mission, I was too close to the edge and got knocked out of the instance area and kicked. That’s a pretty frustrating way to lose progress. If you fall off the outside of the rim, there’s no recovering the mission. Bear that in mind and don’t stray too close to the edge, take it from me. :P

Orion the Cursed.1206:

Why is the very last step NOT SOLO-ABLE??? Do i have to get 30+ people just for 1 completion? Oh wait, its bugged anyway

It’s a five person dungeon – you only have to find four others. When I was doing the Arah dungeon, I just LFGed at the entrance and we had enough people in a few minutes. I know finding a group can be challenging on some servers and at some times of day, but I don’t think exaggerating things this much really helps.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

It does require you to be careful not to draw the attention of the knights patrolling the upper rim, and the patrolling abomination is pretty much a walking deathtrap if you don’t avoid it.

It seems a bit odd for the player to be given a whole group of NPCs, presumably to fight enemies, but then be expected to avoid several of the enemies. I certainly didn’t get the impression of a stealth or avoidance mission. Given that, I didn’t even think about stopping to watch enemy patrol behavior and see what could be avoided.

And if I recall right, that champion Abomination isn’t actually labeled as such. For me, I just turned a corner, saw a “Risen Abomination” and attacked. By the time I noticed the gold portrait frame, I was already in battle. And with all the AI-controled NPCs, I’m not sure retreat would even have been possible.

If the difficultly in that spot isn’t considered a problem, then perhaps it’s an issue that the player isn’t given any hints that they would want to be avoiding some of these fights. Unless of course the intent is for the player to figure it out themselves and possibly have to take a couple deaths in the process (depending on profession, skill, and luck).

But this is just a minor point overall, and there’s other quests probably in greater need of tweaking…

“It’s a five person dungeon – you only have to find four others. When I was doing the Arah dungeon, I just LFGed at the entrance and we had enough people in a few minutes. I know finding a group can be challenging on some servers and at some times of day, but I don’t think exaggerating things this much really helps.”

Its not exaggerating. I know how to do dungeons. You forgot the event needed to open the door to Arah? You are basically acting smug although you basically skipped the hardest part of the “personal story”. Can you open the doors with only 5 players? Whats more the event is currently bugged on my server and has been so for more than a week. You are just lucky are in a different server.

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

That particular story step (Ossuary of Unquiet Undead) is intended to be challenging, but it’s definitely solable. (I did it as a thief.) It does require you to be careful not to draw the attention of the knights patrolling the upper rim, and the patrolling abomination is pretty much a walking deathtrap if you don’t avoid it. The abominations on the platforms are a bit easier, since they are “under construction” and you have about a minute to kill them before they wake up.

I played that. The balance is very fragile. If your entire party of NPCs is alive, it was effortless (with my Thief as well). I really just facerolled everything. If you let the party die though, it becomes what I consider completely impossible.

I found this out when I accidentally fell off the top level all the way to the bottom in the last section. I died, I returned to checkpoint, I returned to the room to find the rest of the party had also either lemminged after me or ran down the stairs, in either case they were hopeless cases. I could have methodically cleared it, but the enemies on the ramps seemed to respawn faster than could kill them, making it impossible.

I had to completely restart the mission (the second run being the faceroll one). I really think that on missions like this where you have a large NPC party to split up the agro and throw in a little dps, it’s necessary to bring them back with you if you use a checkpoint. At the very least teleport their corpses to the checkpoint, rather than leaving them surrounded by enemies that just killed all of you.

Sir Black.7423:

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

It does require you to be careful not to draw the attention of the knights patrolling the upper rim, and the patrolling abomination is pretty much a walking deathtrap if you don’t avoid it.

It seems a bit odd for the player to be given a whole group of NPCs, presumably to fight enemies, but then be expected to avoid several of the enemies. I certainly didn’t get the impression of a stealth or avoidance mission. Given that, I didn’t even think about stopping to watch enemy patrol behavior and see what could be avoided.

And if I recall right, that champion Abomination isn’t actually labeled as such. For me, I just turned a corner, saw a “Risen Abomination” and attacked. By the time I noticed the gold portrait frame, I was already in battle. And with all the AI-controled NPCs, I’m not sure retreat would even have been possible.

If the difficultly in that spot isn’t considered a problem, then perhaps it’s an issue that the player isn’t given any hints that they would want to be avoiding some of these fights. Unless of course the intent is for the player to figure it out themselves and possibly have to take a couple deaths in the process (depending on profession, skill, and luck).

But this is just a minor point overall, and there’s other quests probably in greater need of tweaking…

You are absolutely right. I always have show all Enemy names on, and none of the mobs was labeled with a champion. In fact, when I saw the Risen Abomination frenzy and 2 hit KO everyone (and my Mesmer) for 8k damage per hit and its HP not going down noticeably after 20 hits…I was like “oh hell no not this again”…then I remembered that the exact same thing happened to my Guardian.

To the dev: Yes, it’s a death trap (and possibly a bug). But your players don’t find that fun when you give them an entire army that can kill the whole map, only to be wiped out in 2 hits by one particular monster (that is not labeled properly) of which they are expected to avoid.

By the way, I had no problems with the knights. I was actually killing them for fun until the (Champion) Risen Abomination showed up.

i just completed the storyline on my second toon and i dont recall doing that storyline quest. I just dragged my warrior through the whole storyline solo and it wasnt too much of a drama on any part. Only the Arah dungeon to go.

Ragamok.1905:

well Jerry, Ossuary is impossible witout a group, I am posting this to say the stupid, stupid idea that everything in the game has to be “overwhemingly difficult” has just done it for me, I may never play this game again and will probably advise anyone who asks me that the game is is built for elite players who think dieing continually is fun. If I have to waste 2 hours a day looking for groups I don’t think I am having fun, and having FUN is what gaming is all about to me. If the game is only frustrating and maddening you might as well play something else.

Defiantly not impossible without group. Just soloed it on my elemental with no difficulty at all. Not even a single death

@simplesimon

looking at your screenshot.

oh that one, yea i remember that storyline quest……no issues at all.