Guild Wars 2

I disagree with other threads and say the difficulty level for personal story is fine. I’m having a lot of fun. I die sometimes but other times I survive and it’s a blast. My last mission was shutting down the corpse factory. Pulled too many enemies. All my npcs died. I hid. Rezzed them all. Regrouped and won.

Usually I die as a result of a mistake. I pull to many enemies or don’t keep the npcs alive. Yes doing that helps a lot, keep that in mind.

It’s fine the way it is.

So, basically you assume just because you haven’t encountered one of the really insane hard story missions and/or play a class that has it much easier that everything is okay? Just because you are lucky, doesn’t mean that there are story missions which have issues. Nobody says that all are to hard, but some are, especially for certain classes. So, if you have played all story missions with all classes and you still think that way, then you can come back and post such thing.

Ptaki.3715:

I disagree with other threads and say the difficulty level for personal story is fine. I’m having a lot of fun. I die sometimes but other times I survive and it’s a blast. My last mission was shutting down the corpse factory. Pulled too many enemies. All my npcs died. I hid. Rezzed them all. Regrouped and won.

Usually I die as a result of a mistake. I pull to many enemies or don’t keep the npcs alive. Yes doing that helps a lot, keep that in mind.

It’s fine the way it is.

I am with you and I don’t buy the whining either. I never have difficulty on my Guardian but apparently the Guardian is one of those classes that are supposed to find the personal story easy. Well I also have a relative cake-walk on my ranger and engineer. I haven’t played my necro much but what little I have played with her, she hasn’t had too many issues. Hell, I have been taking my ranger through her personal story one to two level below the recommended and she is yet to die once during any of her missions and that’s including the zerg fests!

I think the problem is that people don’t think enough in terms of skills. If you are making friends with the dirt too much, the thing to do is look at your skill bar and think “what do I need to put on here for this mission”. Too many people have the one skill bar setup that they try to run in every situation and then when it doesn’t work, they come here and cry about dungeons being too hard or personal story being too hard. >.<

Well I have to agree, it feels like people don’t take the time to formulate a tactical plan how to over come a difficult mobs in the storyline. Yes I have die a lot in my personal of my Elementalist, and Mesmer. I alway try different tactical plan to see which works best on which mob. I have it easy on my main who is a Ranger. Most personal story you have a NPC with you. Let them tank he boss and always take the add out quickly. Don’t forget to resurrect the fallan NPC it makes thing more easier to.

You have any idea how hard it is to keep NPCs in this game alive? They just stand still and attack something until they’re killed. And because of their suicidal nature, they’re impossible to revive because enemies are waiting right next to them.

Don’t you even start. Lots of people are having trouble not because they’re not playing well but because the game is throwing completely adverse situations at them like level scaling the player two levels below the enemies. The only “strategy” is kiting.

I’ve had no issues either.

Shooopa.5632:

You have any idea how hard it is to keep NPCs in this game alive? They just stand still and attack something until they’re killed. And because of their suicidal nature, they’re impossible to revive because enemies are waiting right next to them.

Don’t you even start. Lots of people are having trouble not because they’re not playing well but because the game is throwing completely adverse situations at them like level scaling the player two levels below the enemies. The only “strategy” is kiting.

And you are trying to keep NPCs alive because….?

This is part of the problem. If it is not possible to keep NPCs alive, don’t keep them alive. Not like you fail the mission if they die. I mean, a lot of people have difficulties with the final mission of the “did not join the circus” quest chain of the human personal story and it is difficult. You have three veterans and a champion and while you do get Logan and your friend, they can be hard to keep alive. Well I have successfully completed this mission both as a engineer (during beta) and on my guardian following release and you know what I did? I let Logan and my friend take the punishment and used them to separate the bosses and take them on one by one. If they did, they died and I didn’t bother reviving them.

Tactics and strategy means looking at everything you are given, including terrain and NPCs, and using them to your best advantage and yes that might mean thinking of NPCs as not something to keep alive but to use in a specific way to maximise you chances of completing the mission.

Edit: I also don’t want to imply that you should never keep NPCs alive. If you have a tanky NPC and you are specced in a way that makes it more sensible to keep them alive then keep them alive. But the key is to use the NPCs in your tactical planning in away that you can get the maximum benefit out of them. That may mean keeping them alive or that may mean leaving them to die. Assess the situation as it is presented to you and adapt accordingly! That’s the key to success of those of us who are not struggling with personal story or even dungeons and it is not because we are all Greatsword spamming warriors or whatever class you think has it easy. (I for one would not be caught dead playing a warrior)

Tinni, have you even done Forging the Pact? You have to keep the NPCs alive or it bugs out. In that story you face wave after wave of undead. Without the NPCs to help you, you will get steamrolled by them every single time.

You can’t use the NPCs as damage sponges even because they die too quickly. They serve absolutely zero purpose once the Order representatives appear. The enemies kill them in seconds and then turn all their attention to you – there is no strategy you can formulate that would take advantage of them because they don’t stay alive long enough to be used.

The terrain doesn’t help either – enemies can climb over anything you can.

I know you’re playing the human story, so maybe there’s some fundamental differences in its difficulty compared to my charr’s but believe me – there are situations the game throws at you you simply can’t win without either gaming the system or bringing in a whole team of human-controlled players.

I’m able to keep them alive easily enough via blinds. It’s a solid strategy for Thieves and Engineers especially, and if they drop it’s not too hard to revive them.

Asura Elementalist, now 80 – So far I’ve the felt the difficulty is fine. Bugs are another matter, but I’ve found the difficulty perfectly reasonable.

Acaelus Thorne.3862:

Well I have to agree, it feels like people don’t take the time to formulate a tactical plan how to over come a difficult mobs in the storyline. Yes I have die a lot in my personal of my Elementalist, and Mesmer. I alway try different tactical plan to see which works best on which mob. I have it easy on my main who is a Ranger.

(bold added)
Your ranger is a better tactician than your cloth-wearers or is it that his pocket-tank is this “tactical plan”?
I also have noticed that things are far easier playing my wife’s ranger (with a build I wouldn’t choose and without knowing what most of the skills do as I don’t spend time with it) than all my efforts with my elementalist.

No matter how you say it, “you’re playing it wrong” is just dismissive.

Acaelus Thorne.3862:

Most personal story you have a NPC with you.

…for about 2 seconds, then splat

Let them tank he boss and always take the add out quickly.

A build that can take anything out quickly would be the “glass cannon”, which fall under “you’re playing it wrong” because DPS is zero when you’re dead.
Spec for survivability and you aren’t taking anything out quickly (except fun factor because it gets tedious even when successful).
Make a balanced build and, well, survivability still sucks.

It seems, generally, the classes that can chain aoe shutdowns (guardian, thief) or have personal tanks (rangers) do well.

Pneumothorax.2964:

Asura Elementalist, now 80 – So far I’ve the felt the difficulty is fine. Bugs are another matter, but I’ve found the difficulty perfectly reasonable.

Good for you but that doesn’t negate others having much difficulty and little fun.

ZetaStriker.9142:

I’m able to keep them alive easily enough via blinds. It’s a solid strategy for Thieves and Engineers especially, and if they drop it’s not too hard to revive them.

Blind only lasts four seconds – that’s not long enough to replenish your initiative to keep it up constantly. And if they do drop they’re good as dead because the zombies then turn all their attention to you. Even if you escape, the enemies just hang around right next to your friends’ bodies.

Rolo.9248:

Pneumothorax.2964:

Asura Elementalist, now 80 – So far I’ve the felt the difficulty is fine. Bugs are another matter, but I’ve found the difficulty perfectly reasonable.

Good for you but that doesn’t negate others having much difficulty and little fun.

But this is just it though, there is no “winning” in this argument. We say “we aren’t having issue no matter the mission” and you go “good for you but we are” and its either the games fault or its your fault. Possible the truth is something in the middle.

My Guardian didn’t have as much fun when fighting the big dragon thing in Claw island because Guardian ranged isn’t the greatest and I don’t have reflexes fast enough to dodge well while in melee range. But not being able to dodge fast enough is MY issue, not the games. Possibly I can say its the games fault that Guardians don’t have as powerful a ranged option as other classes/sceptres need a buff. But it is also a fact that my Guardian had little difficulty until the dragon boss. So what is it exactly that you want Anet to do?

I mean, the solution to this problem seems to be to give players the ability to adjust the difficulty of their personal mission. An easy mode, if you like, for those of you who keep getting steamrolled even when your character is X levels above the recommended. Conversely, a hard mode for the leet gamers (not me) who find the personal missions a cake-walk, with the rest of us just doing it in normal mode.

I mean, at the end of the day its all about the stats. What’s the % of people who can’t complete their personal story mode and are they mostly a certain class? If the % is high and/or the % is all cloth wearers or something, then you can say “Yes, there is a problem”. Otherwise, it’s not the game.

Most of the complaints are from people who are something other than warriors or guardians.

Which made for an interesting post hypothesizing that because those were the most popular classes, AreaNet balanced the quests for them and forgot about the others.

Shooopa.5632:

Most of the complaints are from people who are something other than warriors or guardians.

Which made for an interesting post hypothesizing that because those were the most popular classes, AreaNet balanced the quests for them and forgot about the others.

Checking back into the thread. My reply would be that there are Rangers (myself included) and Elementalists agreeing with me also. The difficulty is not bad.

Tinni.4351:

My Guardian didn’t have as much fun when fighting the big dragon thing in Claw island because Guardian ranged isn’t the greatest and I don’t have reflexes fast enough to dodge well while in melee range. But not being able to dodge fast enough is MY issue, not the games. Possibly I can say its the games fault that Guardians don’t have as powerful a ranged option as other classes/sceptres need a buff. But it is also a fact that my Guardian had little difficulty until the dragon boss. So what is it exactly that you want Anet to do?

Give me viable options like they said they were.
Do you honestly think “not dodging fast enough” is the cause of repeated failed missions? Are you even reading the grievances? Pithy statements like these are insulting, unhelpful, and dismissive.

Examples of how nobody can “dodge fast enough” just in the mission where I’m stuck:
- Undead zoom up to me like a Benny Hill skit—chill, dodge and it’s immediately right back on me; dodge again, it’s there. I’m out of endurance at this point and RTL is already on CD
- AoEs of AoEs. The entire ground is covered in poison, leaving nowhere to dodge to
- Dodge to a vacant spot? No problem, a respawn will be there to greet you
- One objective is to revive an NPC. I don’t know how to dodge and revive simultaneously (I had an invulnerability skill that worked for that but between that and condition removal, I don’t have any more slots or points for vigour/endurance boosts)

The whole endeavour was one big WTK?

The personal story should be fun and approachable and it is not. I don’t wish it to be /faceroll like non-dungeon PvE is but I don’t want it to be dungeon-difficulty either. Frankly, I’m only playing it at this point because I want to see the story and the writing and voice acting is very entertaining.

I don’t want a casual stroll and I don’t want to run sprints; I do want to go for a fulfilling jog and without stepping on a rake every few steps.

Agreed. Posted similar in another thread with some pointers for bads, which boils down to:

strategy. use it.

These people complaining about difficulty don’t try to adapt. Simple as that.

Source: 80 Guardian & Engy. 20 Thief and War.

Let me make this clear; I have not wiped on a single story mission. Not a single one.

I play a ranger and feel that I am an above average player, my friend however is not. If I felt some of these quests were nuts for a ranger they have to be difficult for other classes that don’t have several dedicated meat shields and a line of traps waiting for anything that gets near. The amount of enemies that get thrown at you during some missions is absurd.

Not only do I think of class disparity, but also skill disparity. Not everyone is as good as me and because I facerolled everything doesn’t mean it’s “easy”. Ranger is the defacto PvE king, I can kite stuff for ages and swap pets for near infinite HP. If I’m looking at these missions and thinking “Wtf?” something is definitely wrong. Apparently, my intuition is correct because a lot of people feel that the quests are very poorly tuned and too difficult, my friend included. I don’t particularly enjoy having to abuse leashing to get through something with no deaths because there are 9 enemies chasing me down.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the PS is really designed as a set of elite challenge content, rather than the core mission of the game — that is, it’s supposed to be hard for everyone but the 1337 crowd. I don’t enjoy it, so I stopped with the bugged Forging the Pact quest. But I think it’s designed to be for elite players and the difficulty won’t be changed.