(edited by road range.6293)
Spoiler alert: About the last quest..
For what it’s worth, adding my voice to everything posted above. This is completely crap, and game-breaking for me. After over 200 hours invested to date, the complete balls up with the final personal story quest has made me lose all interest in playing this game.
No Game can ever satisfied every single individual needs. hardcore gamers wants fast, new, better gears asap. casual gamers wants casual mode but in the same time wants good gears. pvpers wants lots of pvp action with gears on par with endgame pve gears.
after releasing the game for 3months. i think its time for anet to settle on the long overdue bugs rather than releasing new content. New content can be release 6mths later. in between, anet can create small events.
Well, this just killed the entire game for me; actually, the mission to kill the mouth did it. I was having fun up until this point, although very frustrated that you can’t move in game without having to kill something; very few fight-free zones out in the world to even have time for a bio break! I thought the game would be unique but it isn’t. The dynamic events actually break the game as you cannot move through an area without a group even popping up in the higher level areas and there are not always enough around to do them. I also don’t like the fact that part of your story, albeit not a crucial part, takes place in dungeons. I have no guild and none of my friends play GW2; they play WoW (like I normally do). Although bored with the content in that game currently, will be there and not here. Nothing here but frustration and many game-breaking issues; the biggest being the personal story. I thought it would be fun and interesting; it is tedious and boring.
Also waiting to do the last mission until it is changed so you do not need a group.
I love to group up for events when I come across them when I feel like it, but I will not be forced into a dungeon.
I wonder why they don’t have henchmen in GW2 like they did in GW1? That was a great feature for people like me who dislike grouping.
When are people going to figure out there’s a war going on?
All Storymode dungeons should be soloable and give you 4 (competent) NPC partymembers to run with you. And if a RL friend or two wanted to go into a Storymode with you, their characters could take the places of the pre-set NPCs in the party.
Setting storymodes up like that would solve a lot of issues, imo. Make Explorables the ‘hard mode group content’ and let Storymode be more casual.
+Felzza – Elementalist
+Roienna – Guardian
(edited by Pietoro.2014)
I have 3 level 80 characters and none of them have completed the personal story. My guardian is at the last step and every time I’ve been near Arah, there either weren’t enough people to do the events or the events are bugged and can’t be completed.
My other 2 level 80s are working up to that point now, but I figure they’ll get stuck there too.
Yes, I know… killing the world-destroying dragon should be a group thing. And I’d be ok with that, if not for the fact that every single step before that (including some really epic battles) were solo.
Playing a various Stormspire alt – if it’s Stormspire, it’s probably me
Guilds: Elder Prophets [EP], Principality of New Katulus (PiNK)
I haven’t reached that point on my lvl 80’s story. I just can’t be bothered with it, knowing that I’m not going to be able to finish it anyway.
lunawisp was my peacebringer on City of Heroes – she lives on in memory as my gaming id.
I just did 6 suicide runs trying to get to the green marker. Then started searching google trying to find if there was an easier way in there. Apparently not and I was not getting in there alone. Wish they had of had a warning on that one. I guess since I only play solo I have no chance of completing my personal story line, unless I get really lucky and stumble upon players doing it. The storyline should cater for players like myself who don’t want to play in a guild
I feel the pain, especially the suicide runs just to hit the waypoint. I had a kind soul who patiently healed me when I was killed right next to the wp but too far to trigger it. Still, I play solo because I have kids, family, job, etc. I don’t have a block of time that huge to dedicate to dungeons so I don’t play them. Not fair to others and will do me no good except garner enemies in the community if I have to drop out midway.
The fact is I may never finish my personal story. Orr is too sparsely populated and I don’t have multiple hours at one sitting to dedicate to the single quest/dungeon.
Devs: Trait Challenge Issued
I have not finished my personal story and after reading this, and talking to my new guildees, I am most likely not going to complete it. Mostly because I thought the story was entirely lame and flat. But now learning of the obstacles just to make it to the dungeon to Zhaitan, sure does not help the incentive to actually complete it.
I’m not opposed to them having some content where it’s necessary to group, per se. The dungeons can stay as they are – I enjoy running them when I can find guildies in my timezone. I think they should have made Arah a solo experience though, with the option to bring other players in if you wish to. It isn’t ‘personal’ if someone else is in that cutscene, and it’s quite a long dungeon to expect those who have done it before to be kind enough to give their time to run you through.
still didn ot do mine and finished long ago, in gw 1 we had heros and henchmen for dungoens and missions
Those that remember Ring of Fire Island missions before Factions (or if they had no other content to access skills/heroes) and long before they updated henchmen, those were tough missions so people grouped for them. However, you at least had the option to grab your simpleton crew of AI and enjoy your story.
While I echo the dissent over forced grouping, I think there’s a bigger point to be made. The final mission in the personal story is actually lopped off at the end and literally stitched together with a separate storyline: Destiny’s Edge and their reuniting. That is the real tragedy here. I have not done every dungeon, I don’t think many people ever did by the end of their story yet the player is put at the conclusion and redemption of DE likely without ever experiencing that story arc.
It was a mistake to link the two; it cheapened them both. Well as I go back and start working on dungeons, I guess I know how it ends, because I just read the last chapter!
I can’t add to the comments above except to say I agree. The personal story should be something that you CAN complete on your own. I can’t commit to playing a 3-5 hour stint due to health constraints, so I therefore can never complete this portion of the game? At least I found out before I tried to fight my way all the way down with an unrealistic expectation.
What about resurrecting an old tool from GWs and have heroes available for this quest only – or even a predetermined set of NPCs (ones that preferably actually help)?
This is a huge disappointment.
I’m also hoping they change it to be a soloable quest. I actually did the Arah dungeon a while ago, but I’ve just now gotten that far in my storyline. Unfortunately, doing the dungeon isn’t even feasible anymore. No one is looking to do the dungeon. Heck, no one is even in Orr doing the events to unlock the gate.
I would really love to see henchmen added to GW2. Grouping with people is just an inconvenience sometimes (assuming there’s someone to even group with). It becomes more of a restriction when it comes to seeing all the content.
80 Warrior
Blackgate
After running through the last few “Personal Story” instances it was a MAJOR letdown to get to the gates of Arah and find out that the only way to complete it is to party up. My spouse and I generally run through everything together. After spending 30 minutes fighting a constantly re-spawning group of enemies we gave up and turned back. Then another 30 minutes outside waiting for people we thought we might be able to group with (no one ever came up there) the place was swarmed with Risen while I was reading this forum post…
For casual gamers and/or those who are not very sociable in an online environment this is a complete disaster.
I also agree with OrianZeta.1537 – Mashing up the ending story from the dungeons, which some of us not done yet, with the ending to the personal story is a terrible idea.
They mentioned once before release that the last mission would be grouped. (Well, I guess the very first is too…) I expected this, but I wish it was an easy auto-group like the first mission, not a full dungeon. I avoid this game’s dungeons like the plague and would rather not have to do one.
And now, I learn that I wouldn’t even see my own character in the cutscenes… I wonder if I’ll ever bother now. I already lost all interest in running my story at around level ~65-70 because I realized that it really was Trehaerne’s story and he doesn’t interest me.
Ditto on the comments by disapponted soloists like myself that we now have to be froced to group up to finish the personal storyline. I play a lot but no one is ever around to help open the gates to Arah. I spent many hours playing to get to the end and it is frustrating and impossible to even access the dungeon for the Victory or Death story line. If this isn’t fixed by Arena, I’ll be quitting this game..
While I echo the dissent over forced grouping, I think there’s a bigger point to be made. The final mission in the personal story is actually lopped off at the end and literally stitched together with a separate storyline: Destiny’s Edge and their reuniting. That is the real tragedy here. I have not done every dungeon, I don’t think many people ever did by the end of their story yet the player is put at the conclusion and redemption of DE likely without ever experiencing that story arc.
It was a mistake to link the two; it cheapened them both. Well as I go back and start working on dungeons, I guess I know how it ends, because I just read the last chapter!
The upside of including DE was that I wouldn’t have to hear yet another of Trahearne ‘inspirational’ speeches. However, I think you’re right that it would have been more satisfying to see the conclusion of the DE story separately, and I’d also agree that it would be wrong to assume players have also completed the other dungeons and seen the rest of the DE storyline. I held off a while before doing dungeons. I did Arah first simply because the chance came up in guild chat when my character was ready.
(edited by quickthorn.4918)
At first i thought my girlfriend and me was the only one who didnt like how ArenaNet handled the last part of the Personal Story. We played what was like a whole month non-stop, finishing every map we come across all while resuming our personal story when ready to do it. Yes we were in love with GW2… but we stopped playing since early in october due to many reason, but not being able to finish our story nearly ruined it for us.
Like so many players before and after us… we reached the last part in our personal story, luckily for us the gate to the dungeon was open, so we gave it a try, thinking the difficulty was maybe lowered due to having the Personal Story quest active. But of course it wasnt… Not only that but guess who we did meet inside the dungeon… Destiny’s Edge !! Which we didnt see since we hit Level 30 in Lion Arch…
From time to time i come on the forum to read about this issue, hoping for ArenaNet to reply here saying they are going to make some changes to the dungeons story mode. And this is something that is rather sad, this 2 months old topic which is now made of 3 pages havent received one single reply from ArenaNet staff, nope not one single reply from them. All while we can see ArenaNet staff replying in many other topics on the forum, but they are remaining silent over this…
I started playing in Guild Wars Factions, and bought all expansions afterward, and enjoyed playing GW1 for years, yes i did join a group of players when i couldnt solo a mission with those npc controlled Henchmans. And this what also made GW1 special, giving us the ability to solo everything using those henchmans or to just fill up a spot if cant find enough peoples.
Honestly, the chief failure here is in the scripting of the “personal story”, creating an expectation that is left unfulfilled. The showdown with Zhaitan should be an optional end, not the primary one.
Written properly, I think players would have been satisfied with knowing they were responsible for taking the fight back to the dragon, pounding on his door and leaving it there on whether they personally finished the job or not. Perhaps summoning other great commanders to their aid? (In other words, four other players to complete Arah?)
I get the feeling this conclusion was implied in the Source of Orr, but wasn’t given a dramatic enough finale/reward to feel like a passable ending to the personal story. There is no sense of accomplishment, and that’s a big problem. It’s fine if you want to have defeating Zhaitan be a special and perhaps difficult achievement, but you have to also leave players who are unable to make that step feeling they accomplished something special by seeing the story through to the end. No one likes seeing a project unfinished.
As it stands, I agree that forcing both a raid to open Arah and then four additional players to complete your “personal story” is unacceptable. It will simply lead to more disillusionment from casual players and soloists who do not have the assumed resources of large guilds and multiple friends to accomplish a goal left in the right corner of all of their screens.
I can’t add to the comments above except to say I agree. The personal story should be something that you CAN complete on your own. I can’t commit to playing a 3-5 hour stint due to health constraints, so I therefore can never complete this portion of the game? At least I found out before I tried to fight my way all the way down with an unrealistic expectation.
What about resurrecting an old tool from GWs and have heroes available for this quest only – or even a predetermined set of NPCs (ones that preferably actually help)?
This is a huge disappointment.
Yup me to, very disappointed, I play solo, I like playing solo, then I have to group up to complete MY story.
Then I have read that it is bugged, so if you do get in the place by grouping only the first person who enters the dungeon gets to see all the end cut scenes, and the rewards for completion I also read are pretty poor, lots of green items and maybe a blue, and no update to your story line details.
The saddest part of it is that whoever enters it first, the dungeon cutscenes will be all about them instead of you even though you worked your kitten off to get there. Another big kitten is that you can do the last quest as soon as you hit 80 without having to do any of the other quests or even dungeons. Talk about a huge spoiler if you do it without realizing it concludes the story… and then it makes you do it again when your story actually tells you to go there at the end, as if your first accidental run didn’t even count!
I’m surprised this wasn’t asked about at the AMA. There weren’t enough questions about ascended gear I guess.
SInce I discovered this about the end of my story line and that it only counts for the first player into the dungeon I really do not want to play anymore, what a huge let down, but then nearly every MMO I have played has turned into a let down.
why do all MMO writers have this assumption that eveybody who plays wants to play certain areas with other people, it is what turned me away from WoW now it has turned me away from this.
I -was- gonna write a very long and very detailed post about how GW2 was the only mmo that actually managed to keep me coming back, essentially due to the fact that a majority of the game does not require forced social interaction, which for some reason every game developer nowaday seem to think should be the primary function of any game, be it computer or console, rpg, fps, rts, whatever…However I would only be repeating what others have already mentioned on this thread.
I was so surprised and disgusted at the last “personal” mission turning into a “forced grouping” mission that I’m probably just gonna quit playing the game entirely…
It’s not that I want it to be solo that badly, it’s just that I feel I’ve been made a fool of…
Anet offered me an awesome game, and purposefully made a fool outta me at-the-very-end… I feel tricked… It’s FFXIII-2 cliffhanger ending all over again…
I’m glad I found this thread. I had tried 2 times and never even got up the stairs between Compass Plaza and Promenade of the Gods, more correctly I’d fight to the top of the stairs but couldn’t get past that. I even brought a friend with me and we couldn’t get past the top of the stairs. I thought what am I doing wrong. Well now I know. It won’t do me any good to even go further .. Ok I get some things should be a group event. but the end of the game?
I remember Thunderhead Keep back when Guild Wars 1 came out. Monks were paid to join groups to help people through, and the groups would fail and fail and fail. Then I figured out that oh I don’t need a group at all. I could just take NPC’s and fight at the top of the stairs. I probably wasn’t the first one, but I was definitely one of the first ones, because of the insane number of people that I would say, just join my group and I’ll take NPC’s and they wouldn’t believe that it could be done lol (at least until I helped them beet the mission). my point is this, even in guild wars 1 there was a way to get past Thunderhead Keep when that mission was the bane of people’s existence. Guild Wars 2 needs that kind of thing for the end of the game so we can actually complete it.
(edited by Varuuth.1834)
Seems you can enter the dungeon if when you log in and the pact are in control of that area at the top of the stairs, I am lvl 80 so I did manage to get up there by doing a death or glory run dodging and weaving past the undead until I was dead least that way I did mange to get the Waypoint at the top.
So it seems that you can actually get into the dungeon in story mode without doing all the events before. I got in as I posted elswhere and you get some NPCs join you, about 5 or 6 of them, I then approached the first five mobs in the first task in there and promptly got my backside kicked all over the place, I did manage to kill a couple by drawing them away from the others only to find on moving forward they had re spawned. So I would think all they need to do is tweak this approach and you could run it solo with some effort.
Must agree that forced grouping takes away the solo aspect of the storyline, and as I said in another thread has ruined the game for me and I have at the moment no sense of wanting to play.
I see lots of people are complaining about this but as yet no response from ArenaNet
What with paying for this game and buying the book, then buying some gems I have thrown quite a chunk of cash at this game, but will be throwing no more unless things get sorted out.
(edited by washac.2897)
I also haven’t finished the last quest of the personal story qua the above reasons. I couldn’t agree more with the posts.
mesmer (Petroline),
ele (Apple Scruff), engineer (Andersine And), ranger (Dafydd Black), thief (Pi Jensen).
I recently found out the last mission was in a dungeon and needed a group. That basically killed my interest in completing the story line. I just don’t get why you could solo the whole thing, but the last mission. Why couldn’t we have npcs take the place of players for the last mission?
I recently found out the last mission was in a dungeon and needed a group. That basically killed my interest in completing the story line. I just don’t get why you could solo the whole thing, but the last mission. Why couldn’t we have npcs take the place of players for the last mission?
Once in the dungeon in story mode solo you do get a group of NPCs but they are complete rubbish.
Once in the dungeon in story mode solo you do get a group of NPCs but they are complete rubbish.
I was playing through the story mode with an alt last night, and in one of the missions with Trahearne, he got bugged and just stood there looking at me while I fought. I gave up doing the last story quest a while ago on my main, so I’d forgotten how worthless the NPCs can be in this game.
Makes me wonder if the reason they don’t have henchmen like GW1 is that they literally don’t have anyone on the Dev team who knows how to make them anymore.
When are people going to figure out there’s a war going on?
Tbh, I am more disappointed that Zhaitan won’t be a future world event boss. I mean in GW1 we have 8 guys killing a chained and weakened god. That was already pushing it. Now in GW2 we got 5 guys killing an dragon which is even more powerful than a god? Seriously???
Given how hard it is for 40 humans to reclaim one corrupted temple from the raisen, this is a clear unbalance in the worst sense. The point of the game is to challenge the players so that when they do win, they felt that they achieved something. Having Zhaitan being so weak that even 5 humans can kill him does NOT give any satisfaction to the players. The players just go “That’s it? Seriously?” Not to mention battling these huge dragons was supposed to be a huge point of the game.
Now back on topic. I got to the final mission about 3 weeks ago. During this time I wasn’t able to find a party for the mission, even from my guild. Those players that tried it told me, uniformly, that the mission sucks hard. They said that you really have to push yourself to finish it though all the deaths and repetition. They said its one of the worst dungeon ever designed in gaming history. When I ask them why, they said its simply not fun at all. Many members of my guild are going though their alts, but they don’t want to do it again.
So 3 weeks after, I still hasn’t kill Zhaitan. Not sure if I should bother, after hearing what my guildmates are saying.
The Order of Dii[Dii]-SBI→Kaineng→TC→JQ
Necro Encyclopedia-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrAjJ1N6hxs
(edited by CHIPS.6018)
The real problem here is that with the population of the game as low as it is now, it’s near impossible to find a group to do this dungeon with. Nobody is doing it anymore. I apparently made the mistake of not powering through the story in the first few days of the game’s existence. I spent three hours in the Cursed Shore chat looking for a group and not a single person responded. I’ve been trying for almost two months now.
While implementation of this quest might not be that well, I strongly recommend doing the Arah story. It is a very enjoyable dungeon with interesting mechanics. The killing of Zaithan isn’t too challenging (to say the least) but on the other hand, sit back and enjoy completing the story. It is a moment to cherish and I agree to the way they implemented it.
Delayed content is eventually good. Rushed content is eternally bad. ~ Shigeru Miyamoto
While implementation of this quest might not be that well, I strongly recommend doing the Arah story. It is a very enjoyable dungeon with interesting mechanics. The killing of Zaithan isn’t too challenging (to say the least) but on the other hand, sit back and enjoy completing the story. It is a moment to cherish and I agree to the way they implemented it.
All they need to do is give the NPCs that group with you when you enter solo a little more grunt.
(edited by washac.2897)
I have one lvl 80 character and I just did arah story with 2 of my friends. True we were lucky that arah gates were open (we actually fought to keep them open before entering.). Still we had to recruit 2 more but we got there. I think it is not entirely bad idea. All of the other dungeon stories lead up to destiny’s edge being there and your personal story leads you there. Zhaitan is quite big enemy (generally speaking) that I would not go agains it soloing… Besides you could not make so epic (in my opinion) scenes work without other players to help you. A battle of that magnitude demands more players than 1. That is my opinion anyway.
I have one lvl 80 character and I just did arah story with 2 of my friends. True we were lucky that arah gates were open (we actually fought to keep them open before entering.). Still we had to recruit 2 more but we got there. I think it is not entirely bad idea. All of the other dungeon stories lead up to destiny’s edge being there and your personal story leads you there. Zhaitan is quite big enemy (generally speaking) that I would not go agains it soloing… Besides you could not make so epic (in my opinion) scenes work without other players to help you. A battle of that magnitude demands more players than 1. That is my opinion anyway.
The point to the complaining is in the fact that I and more than like all the other complaining are solo players its what we do, its what we like to do play solo. If I had known that at the end of the story line I would be forced group to complete it. I would NOT have wasted all my time playing through the thing, and if I had known before buying I sure would not have bought the game in the first place.
I spent at least 2 hours the other night trying to find people to play this part of my storyline, the people who help gain nothing, also if your not first in you do NOT see the end of your story cut scenes and it does NOT get listed in your story, so that means you would have to run it again being first in, if you made that mistake.
Oh and after trying for 2 hours to get help the other night I gave up, not played the game since.
One last thing you can enter Victory or Death solo and on entry you get 5 or 6 NPCs that join you, but they are useless, why put them there to team up with you if they are useless ?
(edited by washac.2897)
Unless things have changed, you do NOT have to be the leader to get your story completed. I was not the leader when I did this, but my storyline did complete. It is kind of a shame that the fractals have pulled people away from wanting to do Arah though. When I did Arah the first couple of times, people were asking to do story mode all the time. Doesn’t really happen as much now.
Well if it as bad as I’m hearing, I’m OK with not doing it. I just hope when they add on to the story-line later, I won’t be blocked from doing new story missions. I’ll be rather annoyed if I am.
Spent another 2 to 3 hrs tonight trying to get a group for this without success, oh, one person replied and I heard no more from them, people have moved on to Fractals and anybody coming along behind has next to no chance of getting a group for this
You cannot make a *personnel story line a group event it just does NOT work, players move through MMOs like a wave at the start of the game becoming available, and if you miss that wave your chances of getting another BIG wave which is what you need are pretty low.
In GW2 that wave at the moment has reached Fractals, and anybody needing a group before that has now next to no chance.
Oops, sorry, that should have been in *Trahearnes story line.
(edited by washac.2897)
+1 for OP. Personal story should be personal, no grouping required. MMO or not. Give me 100 NPCs, I don’t care, just make it so that I can finish it by myself.
I was really looking forward to completing my story….
Seafarer’s Rest Dimond Slacker [AR]
I just got to this last night and found out I have to get in a group for the end of my personal story. I was really looking forward to finishing but now I’m pretty sure I never will because I don’t like dungeons. It’s just not the kind of playstyle I enjoy and I really don’t like that I’m forced into it if I want to finish my personal story that I’ve been doing without a group from 1-80. Honestly if I knew I’d have to do a dungeon to finish it I never would have even bothered with the personal story to begin with.
Everything is a Nemesis plot.
Agreed. The final part is just rubbish. I completed it on 1 character because virtually everyone was at that stage in the game. And even then I loathed the fact that I had to group up to complete my personal story, which I had fought through for 80 levels solo.
On my alts, I don’t even bother anymore. It’s too much of a pain for a completely rubbish mission story-wise. At the end, I was like ‘Oooohkay… This can’t be it, right? Right!? RIGHT!? Please, somebody say ‘This was merely a setback’ or something! Please!’.
If I were a new player that didn’t start at launch, I probably would’ve stopped playing altogether because of this issue. The personal story feature was one of the biggest draws for me to stop playing my other MMOs and focus on GW.
So yeah, I hate it. With a vengeance. Probably the biggest letdown I’ve had in an MMO since World of Dailies: Mists of the Daily Grind™.
It is disappointing to work hard to do your personal story only to get to the last mission and not be able to solo it. Suddenly you at at the mercy of others. Very few are bothering with it. This needs to change. It has really soured me on an otherwise great game.
Apparently the most epic thing about the final story is the fail. I am tremendously disappointed at right now. They could easily have adjusted the number and power of NPCs to allow a solo person to finish their story.
I was confused that there was no “Enter private instance?” star when I got there. Wow…so many things I love about this game and this simple fail is so epic.
Maybe I will come back in a month or two and see if they got their act together and then finish my “story”. For now, I’ll just watch reruns of other people’s story on YouTube.
Pathetic.
Yea. i agree. it really sucks for solo players like myself. Tbh, i wish the game had more options to let you solo. like a solo or duo dungeons options etc etc. Being a solo player has its limits though :/ but this isnt game breaking. i didnt play the game for the story line anyways
Just got my main through it yesterday, and yes – you just need to be in the story party to finish. Of course, said main’s been 80 for a good two months (got lazy on dealing with the endless Risen supply in Orr/buffed an alt/etc.). I agree wholeheartedly about the forced party bit, too. Hell, wouldn’t have minded something like “heroes,” in the first game – woulda been pretty kitten to roll in, just me and Destiny’s Edge.
Other 80s: Any but Warrior
I’m a new player and I just reached the end of the storyline. It’s a huge disappointment to me. So far i liked the game, but the decision to make the final mission a multiplayer dungeon feels like an insult to solo players. I don’t have the time to play in a guild and PUGs are horrible, so I don’t see any way to finish the quest. I think I’ll just drop the game at this point and go play something else. A shame, really.