Guild Wars 2

Hard mode zones were in Guild Wars 1, and people LOVED them. They provided a huge challenge, and were a great goal to set for yourself. I believe that HM zones should come back in GW2.

• When you enter a zone, you can choose to enter it in hard mode, if you have 100% completion in that zone.

• All mobs are upgraded with more abilities, normal become vets, vets become silvers, etc.

• Build for 5 or more people, much like a dungeon. Champ mobs become purple mobs, and are the same as a dungeon boss.

• Increased rewards, more drops and money rewards

• guaranteed yellows for beating bosses and group events

• at 100% hard mode completion, guaranteed exotic item drop, and some gold. To get 100% completion you need to do all hearts, POIs, vistas, SPs, and all events.

• The zone for your group resets every week/month.

• All mobs are lvl 80, no lvl scaling.

This would be AMAZING! And provide a great monthly challenge for people

I´d LOVE hard mode for GW2,
most zones just are not challenging anymore
and when I think back to all the fun I had with it in GW1
… just do it!

I would rethink the way rewards given, though.
Maybe make special chests, which are scattered across the map at nice hidden places, which can only be opened by picking locks, which one would have to buy/find/earn first.

Similar to these: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Locked_Chest

That would add a nice sense of treasure hunt and not add lots of rare+ items
to the economy by farming the hard mode, as you´d have to first find the hidden chests and then open them with lockpicks you have to get.

I read about Quartz nodes being added, maybe even make the lockpicks craftable with
this new resource, which should already be limited as it is part of the home instance.
(Probably 1 node per day/Account)

So many ideas^^, but it´s late over here, so let´s keep it at that.

This would be pretty great.

I don’t think it would flood the market with rares, people are already able to get rares VERY fast by farming meta events.

I think the option for hardmode would be great. Of course, the specifics would have to be sorted out.

Don’t think it would be that hard….all the areas are already built, they would just have to populate them with difficult mobs.

@No Walking.6349

While the idea of having an hard mode is certainly challenging you are approacing it without considering the many problems involved in it, as in: other players.

Back in GW1 we could join parties to do hard mode instances (which could obviously use your ideas for dungeons), but now it’s way different, I mean, don’t get me wrong I’m here to contribute to the topic so I’ll list problems and solutions with your ideas:

Entering a zone in hard mode: selecting hard mode BEFORE entering a zone is plainly difficult to implement in this game, instead I’d have a “button” that “activates” hard mode and becomes disabled for X minutes (as 20-40mins) to avoid exploiters (they’d just skip content in normal mode to travel faster to farming spots).

5-men parties: because of how Champions are built and the amount of people it takes to take one down in a “decent” amount of time it’d be way too hard, but to top this you also have to consider the number of events bound to one zone, in GW1 hard mode zones meant clearing such zones completely from every single mob, but with so many events constantly changing (which is actually the main theme in GW2 and its purpose) and so many areas, hidden areas especially, it’d simply be impossible to achieve 100% in an area, unless you mean POI, vistas and such but then… how’d you teleport? Especially considering it resets every week?

Mobs upgraded: As you clearly thought this with a 5-men party idea I’ll change it accordingly to what I mentioned earlier (game already built for another purpose): rather than having 5 people clear an area of higher level mobs I’d gladly accept all online people around there, but the previously mentioned “hard mode button” cripples YOUR stats instead of buffing mobs, while granting obviously better rewards in order to meet risk/reward ideas (and developers as well… do you know how much work/time it’d take to make 2 versions of every single monster and balance it? I’d simply program better AI and make monsters in general more competitive/smart).

Better rewards: while I agree with you as previously stated for risk/reward, I’d also remind the devs to completely rework the rewards AND the reward system, I think it’s so messed right now… especially after they said they’ll be releasing time-limited content more often than ever.

How do you plan to keep a track of ALL the events? I’m sure you know how the event system works… as not only they are chains of events, but also multiple chains for a single zone/status at that, as in: if the event X fails it triggers event Y, but if it is completed it triggers event Z instead… there’s way too many to keep track…

The zone for your group resets every week/month:
And… what does “your Group” mean actually? there’s no way the servers could keep track of that much info if a whole guild (all guilds) is playing and even then, would that be only accessible to guilds (as that would make more sense)? Or is it truly party-bound? constantly leading to players lacking content completed and thus not able to join parties?

Also… why would a guild decide to complete Queensdale rather than Orr an infinite amount of times?

All mobs are lvl 80: that is plenty understandable but downscaling’s already working and again, MAKING all those mobs… AND making all those mobs APPEAR for everyone, now that’s a feat….

From a developer perspective I’d say those ideas need complete rework or refinement in order to function properly, feel free to use my suggestions.

Rfreak.6591:

@No Walking.6349

While the idea of having an hard mode is certainly challenging you are approacing it without considering the many problems involved in it, as in: other players.

Back in GW1 we could join parties to do hard mode instances (which could obviously use your ideas for dungeons), but now it’s way different, I mean, don’t get me wrong I’m here to contribute to the topic so I’ll list problems and solutions with your ideas:

Entering a zone in hard mode: selecting hard mode BEFORE entering a zone is plainly difficult to implement in this game, instead I’d have a “button” that “activates” hard mode and becomes disabled for X minutes (as 20-40mins) to avoid exploiters (they’d just skip content in normal mode to travel faster to farming spots).

5-men parties: because of how Champions are built and the amount of people it takes to take one down in a “decent” amount of time it’d be way too hard, but to top this you also have to consider the number of events bound to one zone, in GW1 hard mode zones meant clearing such zones completely from every single mob, but with so many events constantly changing (which is actually the main theme in GW2 and its purpose) and so many areas, hidden areas especially, it’d simply be impossible to achieve 100% in an area, unless you mean POI, vistas and such but then… how’d you teleport? Especially considering it resets every week?

Mobs upgraded: As you clearly thought this with a 5-men party idea I’ll change it accordingly to what I mentioned earlier (game already built for another purpose): rather than having 5 people clear an area of higher level mobs I’d gladly accept all online people around there, but the previously mentioned “hard mode button” cripples YOUR stats instead of buffing mobs, while granting obviously better rewards in order to meet risk/reward ideas (and developers as well… do you know how much work/time it’d take to make 2 versions of every single monster and balance it? I’d simply program better AI and make monsters in general more competitive/smart).

Better rewards: while I agree with you as previously stated for risk/reward, I’d also remind the devs to completely rework the rewards AND the reward system, I think it’s so messed right now… especially after they said they’ll be releasing time-limited content more often than ever.

How do you plan to keep a track of ALL the events? I’m sure you know how the event system works… as not only they are chains of events, but also multiple chains for a single zone/status at that, as in: if the event X fails it triggers event Y, but if it is completed it triggers event Z instead… there’s way too many to keep track…

The zone for your group resets every week/month:
And… what does “your Group” mean actually? there’s no way the servers could keep track of that much info if a whole guild (all guilds) is playing and even then, would that be only accessible to guilds (as that would make more sense)? Or is it truly party-bound? constantly leading to players lacking content completed and thus not able to join parties?

Also… why would a guild decide to complete Queensdale rather than Orr an infinite amount of times?

All mobs are lvl 80: that is plenty understandable but downscaling’s already working and again, MAKING all those mobs… AND making all those mobs APPEAR for everyone, now that’s a feat….

From a developer perspective I’d say those ideas need complete rework or refinement in order to function properly, feel free to use my suggestions.

It would act like an instance, like a dungeon. There would be no other players, and progress for a group could be tracked easily like for a raid, many MMOs do it. And all mobs should be lvl 80 cause it’s content designed for lvl 80s. You would have a “check list” of sorts for keeping track of everything you need to do to finish the area, much like the daily or monthly check list. That would make keeping track of events easy.

I’m throwing money at the screen but nothing is happening!

I think GW2 Hard Modes would be better if they followed a style similar to GW1.

• Instanced zone (can join with parties, but not open world).

• If anyone left the party the instance would continue (so we don’t have “host” issues).

• No mob respawns (until you leave/re-enter).

• List of Dynamic Events with only a certain amount happening for each map. Each different Dynamic Event will be 1-X points, and until Y points have been reached, Dynamic Events will occur. (No repeats, unless a chain was failed and has the potential to start over.)

• If there is a world boss, it will (or may) appear after the map has been vanquished.

• All mobs difficulty scales up.

• Harder Down Penalty (it stays on you until you kill mobs, reducing it’s effect slowly).

Esplen.3940:

I think GW2 Hard Modes would be better if they followed a style similar to GW1.

• Instanced zone (can join with parties, but not open world).

• If anyone left the party the instance would continue (so we don’t have “host” issues).

• No mob respawns (until you leave/re-enter).

• List of Dynamic Events with only a certain amount happening for each map. Each different Dynamic Event will be 1-X points, and until Y points have been reached, Dynamic Events will occur. (No repeats, unless a chain was failed and has the potential to start over.)

• If there is a world boss, it will (or may) appear after the map has been vanquished.

• All mobs difficulty scales up.

• Harder Down Penalty (it stays on you until you kill mobs, reducing it’s effect slowly).

More great ideas

There are so many things from GW1 that should have been brought over to GW2 that it is really hard to nail down just one thing being brought over, BUT if I had to pick just one thing it would be the GW1 UI interaction.

I really would like to have some hard mode zones.. not long ago I described some ideas in here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Next-six-months-Endgame/first#post1924105
It’s not exactly what hard mode was in gw, but however.. :-)

I would have some more ideas for that kind of implementation…

No Walking.6349:

Hard mode zones were in Guild Wars 1, and people LOVED them

Not really. People complained about how they were cheap ways to increase difficulty – just increasing enemies’ hit points, damage and attack speed, without actually making each individual piece of content individually challenging. The result was something very easy to exploit with Spiteful Spirit and similar abilities.

Your idea is very bad. You would basically kill the open world part of the GW2 and fragment the game’s population more than it already is. Not to mention how this is a suggestion, and so it’s in the wrong subforum.

Or, how about hardmode dungeons. Where there are specific challenges like in hardmode in gw1. Basically the entire dungeon remains the same, but you have some specific goals in entering. Like: Beat Final Boss @ AC within 3 bubbles by grast. or, All players must cross the lasers @ CoE to proceed. Portal is temporarily disabled in this instance. etc

Do people (a lot of people) really want harder content?

I ask because the Karka Queen is hard content, it even gives 2 rares as a reward, yet its completely deserted on the majority of servers…no one does it…

Also, Orr is made hard, huge complain thread…literally a ghost town…

AC dungeon changed, made harder, 80% of players never go near it again…again multiple huge complain threads…

The evidence seems to suggest only a small minority, but vocal on those forums want harder content?

Just saying, pointing out the facts, I have nothing against harder content personally…

Meglobob.8620:

Do people (a lot of people) really want harder content?

I ask because the Karka Queen is hard content, it even gives 2 rares as a reward, yet its completely deserted on the majority of servers…no one does it…

Also, Orr is made hard, huge complain thread…literally a ghost town…

AC dungeon changed, made harder, 80% of players never go near it again…again multiple huge complain threads…

The evidence seems to suggest only a small minority, but vocal on those forums want harder content?

Just saying, pointing out the facts, I have nothing against harder content personally…

As a solo player that tends to sit around in LA waiting for my hundreds of buy orders to get filled so I can make 10c if I get lucky… yes, I’d like to vanquish.

I would just go to Mount Maelstrom and farm the 10+ champions (now legendaries) in the cave.

Esplen.3940:

Meglobob.8620:

Do people (a lot of people) really want harder content?

I ask because the Karka Queen is hard content, it even gives 2 rares as a reward, yet its completely deserted on the majority of servers…no one does it…

Also, Orr is made hard, huge complain thread…literally a ghost town…

AC dungeon changed, made harder, 80% of players never go near it again…again multiple huge complain threads…

The evidence seems to suggest only a small minority, but vocal on those forums want harder content?

Just saying, pointing out the facts, I have nothing against harder content personally…

As a solo player that tends to sit around in LA waiting for my hundreds of buy orders to get filled so I can make 10c if I get lucky… yes, I’d like to vanquish.

I also am a loner because I am slower than the normal player and enjoyed vanquishing in GW1, but, vanquishing was made impossible with how GW2 was made, it’s now not just you and your party and the enemy in the world.

Im Mudbone.1437:

I also am a loner because I am slower than the normal player and enjoyed vanquishing in GW1, but, vanquishing was made impossible with how GW2 was made, it’s now not just you and your party and the enemy in the world.

Esplen.3940:

I think GW2 Hard Modes would be better if they followed a style similar to GW1.

• Instanced zone (can join with parties, but not open world).

• If anyone left the party the instance would continue (so we don’t have “host” issues).

• No mob respawns (until you leave/re-enter).

• List of Dynamic Events with only a certain amount happening for each map. Each different Dynamic Event will be 1-X points, and until Y points have been reached, Dynamic Events will occur. (No repeats, unless a chain was failed and has the potential to start over.)

• If there is a world boss, it will (or may) appear after the map has been vanquished.

• All mobs difficulty scales up.

• Harder Down Penalty (it stays on you until you kill mobs, reducing it’s effect slowly).

Would still apply to you in such a way that you would be able to finish it. Of course a zone may take upwards of a full sitting (3+ hours), but that’s to be expected, in fact zones like Frostgorge Sound or Malchor’s Leap might even take somewhere around 6 hours if you’re not prepared.

To you loners/solo players out there…aren’t you playing the wrong kind of game?

The clues in the title MMO…Massive Multiplayer Online…your mean’t to play as a group…that’s the point?

Surely a ARPG would be a better choice of game, those revolve around solo play but you can play co-op if you fancy it…

Meglobob.8620:

To you loners/solo players out there…aren’t you playing the wrong kind of game?

The clues in the title MMO…Massive Multiplayer Online…your mean’t to play as a group…that’s the point?

Surely a ARPG would be a better choice of game, those revolve around solo play but you can play co-op if you fancy it…

I play an MMO because that’s where I’m at home. I would play in groups, but my personality is really nasty (and I know it). It’s a mixture of bi-polar and OCD (neither are extreme, but they are present) and I get into nasty fits. If you’re in NSP, you’ll see me trolling the map chat, but also being very helpful. In the forums, I try to stay away from argumentative discussions because I tend to deteriorate and start bashing (and get infracted, yayyyy).

However, just because I am a solo player does not mean I don’t utilize other players in the game, I simply treat them as I would a player in a game such as League of Legends. With indifference. I’m only playing with them because I need to play with them.

Two things to note are:

I have a 9 day curse. The longest I’ve been in a guild in GW (both 1 and 2) has been 9 days. In GW2, the longest was 7 days. There are exceptions to this rule, such as if I’m the leader, if I’m not active (or actively in the guild, aka a guild for guild commendations which I won’t represent unless doing the guild missions).

Annnnnnd, my guild has 11 inactive players and 1 active player. I’ll let you figure that one out.

Meglobob.8620:

To you loners/solo players out there…aren’t you playing the wrong kind of game?

The clues in the title MMO…Massive Multiplayer Online…your mean’t to play as a group…that’s the point?

Surely a ARPG would be a better choice of game, those revolve around solo play but you can play co-op if you fancy it…

I play solo only because of a disability that would slow the play-style of the party I’m in, the main reason I have been in the guild I’m in for 6 years, they know me and are more than happy to help when I’m in need and even welcome me in parties for dungeons and such adjusting their play-style to accommodate me, another reason is to just be on TS with others while doing things in-game. I loved GW1 and have a great fondness of GW2 even with it’s misfortunes.

Meglobob.8620:

To you loners/solo players out there…aren’t you playing the wrong kind of game?

The clues in the title MMO…Massive Multiplayer Online…your mean’t to play as a group…that’s the point?

Surely a ARPG would be a better choice of game, those revolve around solo play but you can play co-op if you fancy it…

It’s pretty asinine to suggest an entire subgroup of people, be they introverts or extroverts shouldn’t play a certain genre of video game.

Meglobob.8620:

To you loners/solo players out there…aren’t you playing the wrong kind of game?

The clues in the title MMO…Massive Multiplayer Online…your mean’t to play as a group…that’s the point?

Surely a ARPG would be a better choice of game, those revolve around solo play but you can play co-op if you fancy it…

Yes it’s multiplayer…..not specially group-player. It means there is a massive number of people sharing the gaming world space. And who are you to dictate who plays, and how they play anyway?

Back to OP…..I would generally like to see MUCH HARDER dynamic events. I feel that in general they are far too easily completed. Even the dragon fights are far too easy.

ANet has put a lot of effort into making the dungeons challenging, now please make the open-world dynamic events challenging too (in the level 80 areas).

Though I imagine people would be quick to start thread crying about how hard the game is.

I think you would need quality heroes. Imagine finding 5 party members for the entire map!