Guild Wars 2

I went in last night with 2 DPS warriors, a DPS based engineer, a mesmer, and me, an elementalist. We tried for a good hour on Simin alone and just could not get her below half health no matter what we did. Earlier that morning we were running dungeons together as a static group and were just tearing through things and thought that we had the DPS for Simin, we were sadly wrong.

I am not one to call for nerfs because I believe that everything has a counter if you think hard enough and play well enough but this is kind of ridiculous. Yes, I know Simin’s counter is DPS and in my opinion, we had more DPS than the usual group but still could not get her down.

This boss fight only seems doable with 4 GS warriors.

If you are a Ranger, Necro, or Engie and acquired Dungeon Master after the recent Simin “fix” (no longer allowed to DPS while she’s stealthed), how the hell did you do this?

I’m trying again next weekend on my thief with 3 warriors instead of 2 and I’m still not feeling too confident.

To skinnyB: Look above at my post, we did it, but it required an additional spark run SUPER fast before she could heal too much. 4 warriors, 2 of them in blue gear, 3 of them GS, I was axe/mace, and a guardian to run the bottom three sparks and spam tears on us.

supergica.8652:

Still, I can’t see any way to improve this fight without nerfing it, and nerfing it is not good, there must be something challenging in this game PVE-wise.

This. My friends and I were discussing how they could make this encounter possible using a variety of professions, while keeping it challenging. And frankly, we could not come up with anything…

To be honest Simin is the only boss in GW2 on which I wish I could have access to damage meters. To see if we dont have someone in the group who is doing 50% of damage he should during the burn phase. I think this a problem becouse in general I am delighted by the fact that GW2 is not about damage bars and I always protest the ideas to put meters into it. There is this other game for people who likes this style.

I am lucky enough to have a full berserker warrior alt so at least I can get a spot in a team aiming for her. But I imagine someone running, say a necro or an engi might not be so lucky. In fact, I like my engineer in Arah. I did one path with it. Good control and pretty nice on Lupicus. But I would not dare to bring it on Simin. Maybe just to throw tears but mesmer is so much better for it (time warp).

It is much harder than any other encounter in the game. As many others have said as well as myself it can be done with support builds and no mesmers. I think maybe to many people just assume it’s a dps issue when it’s a problem with sparks and tears

Levistis.8356:

To skinnyB: Look above at my post, we did it, but it required an additional spark run SUPER fast before she could heal too much. 4 warriors, 2 of them in blue gear, 3 of them GS, I was axe/mace, and a guardian to run the bottom three sparks and spam tears on us.

supergica.8652:

Still, I can’t see any way to improve this fight without nerfing it, and nerfing it is not good, there must be something challenging in this game PVE-wise.

This. My friends and I were discussing how they could make this encounter possible using a variety of professions, while keeping it challenging. And frankly, we could not come up with anything…

That’s still 4 warriors.

I did this 3 weeks ago…party comp was 2 thieves, 1 warrior, 1 mesmer, and 1 engie. Both thieves were full gc. Warrior was running…I’ve no idea, he had to respec at Simin…I can only assume he re-specced for more dps. As for mesmer and engie…I’ve no clue, I can only assume mesmer was gc.

There is no NEED for 4 warriors…having 4 warriors just makes this fight trivially easy…

skinnyb.5920:

If you are a Ranger, Necro, or Engie and acquired Dungeon Master after the recent Simin “fix” (no longer allowed to DPS while she’s stealthed), how the hell did you do this?

All classes can put out a lot of DPS if they are specced and geared accordingly.

The next step is for those classes to be played competently.

The thing with this fight is that one or two people can hold it back by not contributing to the group’s overall DPS so you’d better make sure everyone in there knows what they’re doing.

I beat it a couple of days ago.

I joined a group on gw2lfg that was already at simin, that 2 people had left their group out of frustration.

When I got there we had 1 mesmer, 1 ele, 1 thief, 1 guardian, 1 warrior (me). We got her down to about 25-30% max before the thief and ele left.

We had as end group :
2 warriors
2 mesmers
1 guardian

The only way we managed to beat her was 4-1 and double timewarp with both warriors and 1 mesmer being full berserker, the other 2 being in exotics but not berserker. The 4-1 trick brought her to about 3-5% HP, we only had to place sparks once to beat her after that.

Both me and the other warrior had gotten a full berserker set solely for that fight.

My original post still stands, this fight is not fun and the way to beat it is not to understand the mechanics, but to brute force it.

Kurr.4179:

My original post still stands, this fight is not fun and the way to beat it is not to understand the mechanics, but to brute force it.

I agree, brute force method shouldn’t work.

And thus the prestige of Dungeon Master was lost. I will admit that this change is probably for the better, but this was really the only boss that was actually ‘challenging’ and a run-stopper. I loved facing her in all of her glory, and beating her knowing that I was among a select few to have done so. Now that will no longer be the case.

Personally, I want more difficulty in dungeons, not easier dungeons that everyone can beat. And no, false difficulty from Agony in FotM doesn’t count. Fractals are no harder than any other dungeon, while some Fractals are arguably easier than some other dungeons.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Personally, I want more difficulty in dungeons, not easier dungeons that everyone can beat. And no, false difficulty from Agony in FotM doesn’t count. Fractals are no harder than any other dungeon, while some Fractals are arguably easier than some other dungeons.

Simin as she is now isn’t difficult, she is impossible with a lot of different professions/builds. Difficulty shouldn’t prevent people from doing an encounter because they lack dps or speed skills.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

Hey folks, sorry about not having posted in here for a while! But update time!

I took another look at Simin after the spark AI fix, and got more feedback concerning the difficulty. The sparks were a step in the right direction, but it wasn’t enough. I’m going to reduce her stealth healing this time around while I consider other possible changes. As it stands right now she has some nice mechanics with the tears and the spark running, which emphasizes the teamwork we like to see. However all that aside, her healing turns it from a fun mechanics fight to a more hard-nosed DPS check for even the most mechanically skilled groups.
Personally I would much rather see people having fun with mechanics than having meet a DPS check. Considering also there isn’t a visible meter to check your group DPS versus her healing, groups can spend hours doing this and reaching the same result, despite meeting the mechanical skill threshold.

I will eventually change her stealth mechanic so she doesn’t heal during it and instead does something else (like an enrage moment where she is invulnerable), but for now I’ll just take her healing down a peg to reduce the DPS needed to overcome the fight, so people can enjoy the mechanics of it.

Thanks!

Well, there it is. Enough crying from the community and I guess even the content made for us “hardcore” players goes down the chute. Time to go complain about the artificial difficulty of obtaining a legendary.

Now the only somewhat hard fight in the game will be reduced to a total kittening steamroll, and the dungeon master title acquired by people who couldn’t complete it but could cry on forums.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

Rising Dusk.2408:

Personally, I want more difficulty in dungeons, not easier dungeons that everyone can beat. And no, false difficulty from Agony in FotM doesn’t count. Fractals are no harder than any other dungeon, while some Fractals are arguably easier than some other dungeons.

I agree that more difficulty would be better, but a DPS check really isn’t difficulty in my opinion. It’s a mechanic, sure, but after you learn all her mechanics its just down to raw numbers, and I don’t agree that is as fun as running sparks and using tears to cleanse people. Right now Simin just forces you to bring high DPS with you, which I’m not a fan of. Its a tough fight for the wrong reason, and her core mechanics should be more emphasized, not her health bar.

It’s strange, because that DPS can be achieved with nearly any class make-up. I’ve accomplished this feat with a Necromancer using a condition build, of all things. You can perform the 4-1 strategy and brute force your way through her, but I’ve also beaten her using the sparks and running them really fast. It is a challenging encounter now that she’s invulnerable while stealthed, and requires that players react quickly and waste zero time. That is true difficulty, locked away in team coordination, planning, dedicating players to tear throwing without missing a beat, and knowing exactly what to do at exactly the right moment. Seconds counted before when you had to run those sparks mid-combat. That is the difficulty I speak of, not brute forcing her.

Honestly, I would have preferred buffing her to make brute force DPS ineffective, and simply forcing players to get the sparks in every time. Increasing her Toughness (reducing raw Power-based damage, but rewarding condition damage) and DPS, but decreasing the speed of her healing in Stealth slightly to compensate for the greater difficulty in damaging her. I’d also recommend fixing the 4-1 thing, because that just feels like an exploit (it might not be, but it simplifies the battle too much in my opinion).

Rising Dusk.2408:

And thus the prestige of Dungeon Master was lost.

What prestige? People do that boss with brute force, there’s no prestige in that.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

I’m going to reduce her stealth healing this time around while I consider other possible changes.

When this change is going to kick in?

haviz.1340:

Rising Dusk.2408:

And thus the prestige of Dungeon Master was lost.

What prestige? People do that boss with brute force, there’s no prestige in that.

Brute force? As opposed to what other strategy used for dungeon bosses in this game?

I’ve completed her with 2 thiefs, a mesmer, a support ele, and my Guardian decked out in 1400healing power gear. Yeah.. real brute force there

George Steel.1804:

Brute force? As opposed to what other strategy used for dungeon bosses in this game?

I’ve completed her with 2 thiefs, a mesmer, a support ele, and my Guardian decked out in 1400healing power gear. Yeah.. real brute force there

And I’ve done it with 3 people or with war/thief/nec/nec/ranger. Doesn’t mean that’s how majority do that.

Hopefully you remove 4-1 in return. That would make it acceptable. If possible, remove that “stealth only when below 50% health” (remove max health in return if needed).

But I really hope it doesn’t turn yet another “faceroll”-fight. If your change allows very bad spark-runs then make her appear at random spots in return.

haviz.1340:

George Steel.1804:

Brute force? As opposed to what other strategy used for dungeon bosses in this game?

I’ve completed her with 2 thiefs, a mesmer, a support ele, and my Guardian decked out in 1400healing power gear. Yeah.. real brute force there

And I’ve done it with 3 people or with war/thief/nec/nec/ranger. Doesn’t mean that’s how majority do that.

Who cares about how the majority does it? Truth is, there are many group comps that could work, but people just fail to pull their own weight. If individuals want to stack warriors and mesmers, great, good for them. They are only using the tools ANet has provided – Warrior’s ridiculous hundred blades damage ofc rewarded for hitting “2” and mesmer’s time warp (best elite in the game). But as I said, there are many group comps that can do it just fine without either.

People just didn’t want to take the time and learn..

I don’t see why people complaing about what Robert said.
He confirmed that he would like to have more difficulty in the dungeons.
He just said that the difficulty shouldn’t be there just because of possible DPS problems…

I’m one of those that hopes for way more challenging/difficulty throughout the game, even if I’m one that wouldn’t or won’t be able to succeed in that content.

Alone the words of the OP with this “do-able for PuGs” and so on… At least the dungeons should actually have a lot of paths (probably with better rewards – nothing different, just more of what each specific dungeon brings to the table) that are just do-able by the smallest percentage of the community, with challening fights no matter how often they go in there.

I’m far away of being a hardcore gamer, I never raided, I’m probably would not be able to finish that kind of content, but if anytime, it would be a better reward by itself, better than any reward(loot) could be…
The feeling to have beaten something that you struggeled to do many, many times… That’s the best feeling ever in my opinion…

I won’t remember how I finished a generic content that (ten)thousands of players have beaten before without any real problems, even if a pre-cursor or whatsoever dropped for me… But a challenging/difficult (not unfair like just one shotting without any chance to react, what is kind of fake difficulty!) content, that my group wasn’t able to overcome again and again and the moment when we probably overcome and succeeded finally, that is something that I would still remember after a long time.

Replect.3407:

I don’t see why people complaing about what Robert said.
He confirmed that he would like to have more difficulty in the dungeons.
He jsut said that the difficulty shouldn’t be there just because of possible DPS problems…

I’m one of those that hopes for way more challenging/difficulty throughout the game, even if I’m one that wouldn’t or won’t be able to succeed in that content.

Alone the words of the OP with this “do-able for PuGs” and so on… At least the dungeons should actually have a lot of paths (probably with better rewards – nothing different, just more of what each specific dungeon brings to the table) that are just do-able by the smallest percentage of the community, with challening fights no matter how often they go in there.

I’m far away of being a hardcore gamer, I never raided, I’m probably would not be able to finish that kind of content, but if anytime, it would be a better reward by itself, better than any reward(loot) could be…
The feeling to have beaten something that you struggeled to do many, many times… That’s the best feeling ever in my opinion…

I won’t remember how I finished a generic content that (ten)thousands of players have beaten before without any real problems, even if a pre-cursor or whatsoever dropped for me… But a challenging/difficult(not unfair like just one shotting without any chance to react, what is kind of fake difficulty!) content, that my group wasn’t able to overcome again and again and the moment when we probably overcome and succeeded finally, that is something that I would still remember after a long time.

I agree and also hope that they do introduce some real “difficulty” level into the new content. The only problem is the only fight that required any forethought, planning, and execution is now being nerfed for the masses. Was it part false-difficulty through DPS ? Yeah. Could it have been completed with decent damage and people playing their roles flawlessly? Absolutely.

What challenges remain for us now?

Horrible news. Why not give people to teleport to the endboss with 1% health left right away when they enter the dungeon? Dungeons are already mindnumbing easy.

The difficulty is not DPS. The difficulty with the path varies with different professions because the sparks do not follow some professions correctly. For example, it is especially hard to guide the sparks with a ranger compared to a warrior.

Why not remove the sparks completely and replace them with static orbs?
Instead of having to get a couple of sparks to follow you, five people have to retrieve five orbs and place them in five slots.
The issue of co-ordination would remain. The 4-1 exploit would be removed. The “requirement” of three extreme DPS people waiting for her to reappear in the exact same spot would be removed. The extremely annoying issue of sparks following pets, summoned creatures and clones on some occasions rather than lock in place properly would be removed. This would change the emphasis of the difficulty to team co-ordination rather than to either two lucky spark-runners or specific professions.

Well Arah p4 is the hardest path in the whole game, I don’t think that it should be easier. It is doable, even with a non-perfect group. I think my group was stuck at Dwayna for like 4 hours, but in the end we we’re coordinated enough so it worked.

Hey Robert, I hope this doesn’t get buried, however since you are planning to nerf the healing on Simin, may I suggest you take the approach of giving her a linear (or… exponential) increase to her healing rate, if it is not already implemented as such. In other words start it off slow/non-existant and gradually increasing her heal rate? This could be implemented with or without a cap. I suggest this because it’d allow you to emphasize the spark mechanic as opposed to raw dps, by “rewarding” players who can put the sparks in quickly by having her not be able to restore health, while keeping the difficulty there for people who have not yet learned the mechanic, as opposed to a flat heal decrease, which is hard to balance correctly between what is considered challenging or easy.

Four hours? I thought 45 minutes learning Lupi was bad as a group going into Arah for the very first time. Please remember, a good chunk of us don’t have for hours to learn an encounter. A good chunk of us don’t play so much that we have 3 sets of gear on us at all times so we can just switch from our more survivable gear we use for dungeons to DPS gear.

For those wanting these huge challenges, please remember that ANet is not raking in millions of dollars from ripoff subscription fees. If you’re wanting content that requires that much effort, there are plenty of grind to win games out there.

Thank you, Robert, for taking the time to look into this and finding ways to improve the experience for everyone.

The Simin fight has two main elements to it. 1) DPS, and 2) sparks running. If your group has really good sparks running, you don’t need really high DPS builds or classes. But if your group has really high DPS, they can trivialize the sparks running (especially if they do the 4-1 trick.)

Right now, most people who’ve completed Simin or are trying to complete Simin are focused a lot more on the DPS part than the sparks running, and that’s definitely not the intention of the fight.

The intended margin of error on sparks running allowed for this fight was probably set too small for the majority of players, forcing most players to view it as a very high DPS check.

I want dungeons where the first successful clear without exploits will be weeks after people tried their first time. Not something where everyone can head in and be sure to come out victourios.

They way these nerfs go we will have bosses that you kill with 1 hit, so every player could do it.

Don’t nerf her. Shes perfect just the way she is. Arah is still a pub stomp dungeon. I love it.

There is a very simple way to beat dwayna :>

kevkelsar.9507:

Four hours? I thought 45 minutes learning Lupi was bad as a group going into Arah for the very first time. Please remember, a good chunk of us don’t have for hours to learn an encounter. A good chunk of us don’t play so much that we have 3 sets of gear on us at all times so we can just switch from our more survivable gear we use for dungeons to DPS gear.

It takes 4+ hours for groups who focus on dps part instead of how to run sparks. I often join such teams stuck at simin for few hours asking for dps warriors. If the team listens to me and act accordingly we can do it in 5-10 minutes, less with good dps team. If the team doesn’t listen or can’t adapt fast enough, I just leave them.

For those wanting these huge challenges, please remember that ANet is not raking in millions of dollars from ripoff subscription fees. If you’re wanting content that requires that much effort, there are plenty of grind to win games out there.

It’s not a huge challange, but it’s one of not many. How many bosses are there that aren’t defeated by randomly used skills? 2? 3?

Thank you, Robert, for taking the time to look into this and finding ways to improve the experience for everyone.

Yes, next patch legendaries for everyone who does something ordinary, I don’t have time to spend it for grinding, Anet, please improve my experience with the game and give me legendary weapon.

Translation: you don’t need to do arah path4 if you aren’t able, I won’t have legendary because I hate grinding.

There is a huge difference between experiencing content (dungeons provide story and lore) and having a flashy item with stats that are no better than what is readily available through other means.

kevkelsar.9507:

There is a huge difference between experiencing content (dungeons provide story and lore) and having a flashy item with stats that are no better than what is readily available through other means.

Having flashy item is experiencing content.

well I think this time I was the one to say: I did it the hard way so everyone else shall have to do the same. Sorry guys, you are totally right. 4 hours fighting really sucked, just like I am trying to get a precursor since 2 months^^
Sometimes one needs a push to realise the truth

Robert by any chance have you investigated those random stealths? Are they a bug you have no idea how to deal with it or it’s some kind of hidden mechanic?

Those are what kill most of prepared pugs but you have made no reference to them and, if it’s fixable, you wouldn’t need to tone down the healing that much.

I believe the goal is to create boss mechanics that allow a variety of groups (with even more variety in individual player builds and skill levels) to defeat a boss with similar levels of challenge. Therefore, I suggest the following:

Take her stealth healing mechanic and make it slowly decrease in potency over time. Take her offensive damage output and make it slowly increase in potency over time.

This leaves the current mechanics relatively intact, while providing two different ways to master them:

A high DPS group can overwhelm her self-heals and take her down quickly to prevent her damage from taking them down due to lack of support and healing.

A group with more supportive builds can play a waiting game and outlast her self-heals while doing what DPS they have. Then, when her healing potency is reduced far enough, their DPS will eventually take her down. However, they have the added factor of increased incoming damage, so their support builds will be put to the test as a result.

No group will likely ever fit entirely into either DPS or Support, but any hybrid between the two will find success (provided the mechanics are understood and mastered) when the team’s DPS can overwhelm her healing at the same time their support can withstand her damage.

Just my 2c. I hope this might help with figuring out how to fix the fight permanently.

Attempted this path about 12-13 times – a couple of early learning runs were between 4-7 hours, all unsuccessful. Later runs not so long due to most groups deciding they didn’t want to continue. Usually have had at least 1-2 warriors. I don’t find the difficulty (using the word loosely) or fight mechanics themselves to be a factor, so much as team communication and coordination, and definitely think it’s doable.

— the skippable rant —
The more recent LFG-site pugs I’ve joined usually kick me outright for being a ranger (i never join the dps war/mes only listings) and the 2 times I’ve decided to host the party – after getting to Simin the exact same thing has happened – after the initial few team-harassing all-caps ragequitters at Simin, the replacement folks came in tried a few times and just vote-kicking me on my own run (seriously not cool) on the grounds that I mentioned i only had about another hour or so tops to keep trying (after the first 3 or so we were in there), even when i’m both dps’ing & and running top sparks quickly & without issue (other than occasional pet aggroing a spark). One of the guys who kicked me the first time it happened even went as far as whispering me the next day to ask me to get him and his friend through p4 to Simin so they could try again for their DM title as if nothing had happened – wanted/should’ve reported him, but I didn’t.
-- /end rant —

I actually enjoy running all the Arah paths, it’s one of the more beautifully detailed dungeons and some of the coolest bosses in the game IMO (though not a fan of Alphard – no matter how cool that name is), but I admit even simply getting a P4 run as a ranger together can sometimes get frustrating, let alone finishing it. I KNOW it’s possible, I’m certainly not at the point of griefing out of Simin yet.

Anyone care to give it a go with me?

Good news about the change. Can we expect it with the Feb. content update?

Why not just Add delay to her healing after stealh ?
Lets say, when she goes into stealth we got 4-7 seconds before her healing kicks in, and after that delay she heals normaly,.
That way:
-Awesome party will not allow her to regen at all
-Less awesome party failing a little with running will still manage while paying price of allowing her to regen a little each stealth
-Complete failrules will still be… well complete failures.

People complaining about nerfs to Simin and making content the “omg free loot” should rethink again which game they are playing. Or at least IMO there is a conflict between certain concepts of how game is working and what is it’s intended goal.

There are certain other games, names of which you should know well, where progressing through content of increasing difficulty gives you some bragging rights and gradually more powerful loot. Or perhaps not to you as entity but more to the guild you are representing becouse any tougher challenges are always a group content with the toughest ones reserved only for like 1% (often less) of game’s population. This all spawns different layers of competition. Like who does most damage, who has best gear, who killed some boss first etc. etc. Now those are all elements that are OK if you enjoy this type of goals but as far as I remember, they were never a part of the Guild Wars franchise. And as far as I remember, GW2 manifesto ensured us that, if anything, this will remain to be the case.

Now what is Simin? Is it too hard? Probably not. In fact, for the group of 5 prepared and skilled individuals this boss will be underwhelming, like pretty much everything that they will encounter in GW2. But there is one flaw in its design IMO. This boss fundamentally differs from anything else you encounter in game and from no apparent reason. All other encounters in GW2 could be summarized with one word – survive. If you learn to survive, you will emerge victorious. This sort of design was a natural effect when resigning from the trinity model. Why no boss in GW2 has enrage timer, a mechanic which is so popular in most other MMO-s? Wait there is one. And its called Simin. She will not enrage and 1-shot you, but every micro-cycle of her “vanish” is an enrage timer on its own which will reset the fight when not treated with proper speed and dps numbers in response. When this sort of mechanic is introduced to the game, we start to require new tools which otherwise would not be needed. Like damage meters for example. As of now, in GW2 you will know that you have a bad teammate if he is getting downed constantly. That is your indicator and not getting downed is an elementary thing that GW2 player must master. In “that other game” an equivalent of such mastery would be how to deal the best damage I can. This further pushes us into shady grounds like class balance and elitism. If all I need to do is learn how to stay alive with my class and deal some damage or provide support, the concept of “play with what you want” remains viable. Bosses like Simin which are in concept closer to designs of “those other games” are breaking that principle.

In GW1 I could complete the entire content of PvE while playing solo. Including the hardest things like hard modes of Slaver’s Exile or Mallyx runs. The source of prestige were grindy titles like “God Walking Among Mere Mortals” and to be honest I never expected GW2 to be different. Things like legendary weapon or achievement points are just a long grind and nothing else. I think that was the intention. The “no grind” philosophy from manifesto remains true and it concerns the fact that you dont need to grind to have a viable character to play (ie. gear). Again, bosses like Simin are messing with this. You are an engineer? Oh well, tough luck, GTFO. Or at least that is how you will be treated by PUGs trying to beat Simin. It took some time to solo in GW1 and it was more difficult from playing with a team of skilled friends but it worked. GW2 introduces content which is not doable solo (unless gimicky or not trully intended by designers, like warrior soloing Lupicus) so I need to rely on my team. That is cool as long as we stay away from natural elitism that plagues other MMO games. Trying to kill Simin and kicking 10 people from your group on the way (becouse they obviously suck since the boss is not dead yet, the hell with the fact that they are never getting killed, they understand how sparks and tears works and that they still do damage, but NO, the boss vanished on us at 10% HP, damage is too low, KICK THEM) is bull*** and IMO does not belong in a GW game.

Dunno how p4 could ever be free loot, that place is freaking long!

And personally I think it is completly reasonable to nerf simin slightly, the difficulty diffrence between her and the other bosses in the dungeon is quite substantial.

And its not like hes removing the regen, only lowering it so that any group composition has a fair chance.

I dont see a problem with path 4, my guild already did it in under 1h without skipping and exploiting stuff.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

Rising Dusk.2408:

Personally, I want more difficulty in dungeons, not easier dungeons that everyone can beat. And no, false difficulty from Agony in FotM doesn’t count. Fractals are no harder than any other dungeon, while some Fractals are arguably easier than some other dungeons.

I agree that more difficulty would be better, but a DPS check really isn’t difficulty in my opinion. It’s a mechanic, sure, but after you learn all her mechanics its just down to raw numbers, and I don’t agree that is as fun as running sparks and using tears to cleanse people. Right now Simin just forces you to bring high DPS with you, which I’m not a fan of. Its a tough fight for the wrong reason, and her core mechanics should be more emphasized, not her health bar.

Thank you, this is exactly how I feel about this fight, I’ve just never been able to word it so well. DPS checks are not how you add difficulty. Adding complicated mechanics, strong attacks people need to learn how to dodge, etc., that is what difficulty is. Preparing so that everyone has to bring zerker gear is just tedious, not difficult. Especially when all classes are not created equal in this regard.

Malediktus.9250:

I dont see a problem with path 4, my guild already did it in under 1h without skipping and exploiting stuff.

I would love to see this, killing all the trash mobs from beginning to end boss w/o having to go out of your way all in under 1hr.

Its actually quite easy. We use 4 warriors (berserker with greatsword) and 1 guardian (berserker with hammer).

5 melee zerker team has no problems with dps check boss, more news at 10.

Every class can use berserker and melee equip. Anet doesnt let you change equipment at any time for nothing. Even if you arent full berserker you can do Simin quite fast if you get the sparks right every time.
Not to mention there is zero reason not to go berserker or other full damage equip in PVE (maybe except high lvl fractals). Because most damage is easy to dodge and reviving downed people is easy.