Guild Wars 2

T4s in current iteration are too easy for me personally and many people told me they feel the same and they don’t run them anymore because they’re too easy and thus not fun. The change I’m proposing will not affect people who like things as they are, but offer extra rewards and more challanging difficulty for those who wish to have it.

Something like this is needed, because while some enjoy to play the game more casually, it doesn’t mean that those who want to do the hardest content they can should not be able to. It can absolutely go hand in hand and cater to both audiences. Below I just give an example for a possible implementation.

Fractal of the Mists “mini instabilities”.
Called “Mistlock Volatilities”.
Available to active on Tier 4 only.
Can only be activated in a specific order.
Activating a mistlock volatility will reward all party members with an extra Fractal Encryptions.
For each extra volatility gain extra N Fractal encryptions where N is the total amount of volatilities. (For a maximum of +21 per fractal, or a total of +63 for all T4s).
The extra rewards will only apply to fractals in the current daily rotation.

Flavour text:
“Revisiting the Mists frequently has left some side effects on you…”
Currently Active: (list)

There are 6 volatilities in total:

1. Maim of the Sluggish: You are periodecally inflicted Cripple(2s) if you don’t have swiftness. This effect will not put you in combat.

2. Dispelled Empowerment. Effectiveness and duration of Might applied to you reduced by 20%.

3. Envenom of the Injured. You are inflicted with Poison(3s) when you drop below 50% health. 5 seconds cooldown.

4. Fortified Defenses: Enemy breakbars are 66% tougher.

5. Bane of the Unprotected: All attacks on you will critically hit if you don’t have Protection.

6. Quickened Slaughter: Attack speed of enemies increased by 25%.

Reasons:
1. Stacking swiftness used to be a major indicator of good team synergy to help clear the content fast. It is mostly ignored these days due to 25% movement traits and/or
laziness. For groups who run optimally (or anywhere close), this is a non-issue.

2. Racking up significant damage will now require high uptime on high stacks of might which is now also harder to maintain.

3. Paying attention to poison will become more important for healers to fully support their party. Personal condi cleanse will have a lot of a better spot in many builds.

4. Currently too easy to break almost all breakbars in fractals especially if the group is even half coordinated. With the exception of some breakbars, which might now require you to run a CC heavy comp.

5. Protection is often a boon that can be neglected especially since the Fractal Defensive Potion has been intoduced. Protection is that much more important now.

6. Blind uptime on packs of mobs becomes critical, also makes a lot of attacks from bosses less redundant and harder to evade.

With most of them i agree the only thing id change is make the insability of swiftness only happen during combat

Reasons: Stacking or not swiftness is not a sign of fractals being easier its just an annoying factor im ok with it being something you get during combat so before an encounter you stack swifteness that way you avoid the criple and you and your party can move faster from aoes etc. Having it as a perma debuff is just unfun.

But it makes me thonk a more interesting and fun way but argueably more slow in the making would be to just introduce more cm like the one the 100 frac has.

zealex.9410:

With most of them i agree the only thing id change is make the insability of swiftness only happen during combat

Reasons: Stacking or not swiftness is not a sign of fractals being easier its just an annoying factor im ok with it being something you get during combat so before an encounter you stack swifteness that way you avoid the criple and you and your party can move faster from aoes etc. Having it as a perma debuff is just unfun.

But it makes me thonk a more interesting and fun way but argueably more slow in the making would be to just introduce more cm like the one the 100 frac has.

Yeah I couldn’t find a way to express it in a short sentence as what it is. It does apply to out of combat but to avoid being annoying too much, getting crippled by this won’t put you into combat. It will just slow you down if you don’t coordinate. swiftness stack after an encounter.

And Yes more CMs is also an option. I gave this as an example for a way without as much work and also allowing more classes into the meta. Think revenant, support ele.

BeLZedaR.4790:

T4s in current iteration are too easy for me personally

Stop running in a static group and pug them. The challenge is much bigger than to rush through it with friends. In some of these runs you have to carry others very hard.
Second option is to play raids. Fractals are in the right spot now and the real challenge are raids with challenge mode.
I don’t think we need more harder stuff in fractals besides 3-4- challenge modes like in level 100.

BeLZedaR.4790:

zealex.9410:

With most of them i agree the only thing id change is make the insability of swiftness only happen during combat

Reasons: Stacking or not swiftness is not a sign of fractals being easier its just an annoying factor im ok with it being something you get during combat so before an encounter you stack swifteness that way you avoid the criple and you and your party can move faster from aoes etc. Having it as a perma debuff is just unfun.

But it makes me thonk a more interesting and fun way but argueably more slow in the making would be to just introduce more cm like the one the 100 frac has.

Yeah I couldn’t find a way to express it in a short sentence as what it is. It does apply to out of combat but to avoid being annoying too much, getting crippled by this won’t put you into combat. It will just slow you down if you don’t coordinate. swiftness stack after an encounter.

And Yes more CMs is also an option. I gave this as an example for a way without as much work and also allowing more classes into the meta. Think revenant, support ele.

Thing is the “annoying” thing of being in combat is the move speed decrease which the cripple will cause regardless you are in combat or not and honesty theres no real reason to coordinate your swiftness if ou will not get into combat after that.

Lets say when you run under the platforms in thaumanova to get to the various sections of the fractal, theres no mobs or dmg that you need to quickly avoid or will have to deal with so having to stack swiftness for that would just be a thing you need to do jsut to avoid the cripple, same thing with molten furnace while w8 for the drill to move having cripple there is not really needed and jsut aplying it for the sake of cripple isnt reall fun.

Again im not against the cripple but where it makes sense like before an encounter that cant me skipped(either with stealth or w/e) or when theres generally a state of constand combat during the majority of the run (urban battleground for example)Then yeah sure its fun and it makes ppl swap weapons skills etc to blast swiftness.

I’d also suggest instead of having might last less have the bosses have like a buff that makes them take less dmg and having permamight will be ideal there or less it takes longer. That way you dont really need to change gear food to jsut get the 20% boon durration.

Vinceman.4572:

BeLZedaR.4790:

T4s in current iteration are too easy for me personally

Stop running in a static group and pug them. The challenge is much bigger than to rush through it with friends. In some of these runs you have to carry others very hard.
Second option is to play raids. Fractals are in the right spot now and the real challenge are raids with challenge mode.
I don’t think we need more harder stuff in fractals besides 3-4- challenge modes like in level 100.

1) I almost never run with static groups and I still cleared all t4s in about 25 minutes in my pug runs when i used to do them.
2) I don’t get this assumption that fractals are ok to be easy because raids are hard. If I remember correctly, Fractals were meant to be the hardcore 5 man content while raids are the hardcore 10 man content. And you are right that fractals are not close to “the real challange”.
3) I see you say this because you think I brag. I don’t. I don’t care how skilled you are or are not and if I’m better than you or not. As far as I know you might be soloing them faster than I clear them in a group and I don’t care. As I mentioned this removes nothing from the current system and only adds for people who want to stress themselves further for enjoyment. And as I mentioned I’m not alone on this boat.

Vinceman.4572:

BeLZedaR.4790:

T4s in current iteration are too easy for me personally

Stop running in a static group and pug them. The challenge is much bigger than to rush through it with friends. In some of these runs you have to carry others very hard.
Second option is to play raids. Fractals are in the right spot now and the real challenge are raids with challenge mode.
I don’t think we need more harder stuff in fractals besides 3-4- challenge modes like in level 100.

It wouldnt hurt the game tho what he suggest neither the experience of someone who pug or simply doesnt want the challenge. Also the guy might want to play with his friends telling him “dont play with your friends play with pugs if you want challenge is not cool” and basically thats what you say there.Might i add, jsut because there are raids doesnt mean there cant be optional added difficulty in fractals, since they want fractals to be the breach between 5man and raids they need to make them harder(for those who want to raid).

zealex.9410:

BeLZedaR.4790:

zealex.9410:

With most of them i agree the only thing id change is make the insability of swiftness only happen during combat

Reasons: Stacking or not swiftness is not a sign of fractals being easier its just an annoying factor im ok with it being something you get during combat so before an encounter you stack swifteness that way you avoid the criple and you and your party can move faster from aoes etc. Having it as a perma debuff is just unfun.

But it makes me thonk a more interesting and fun way but argueably more slow in the making would be to just introduce more cm like the one the 100 frac has.

Yeah I couldn’t find a way to express it in a short sentence as what it is. It does apply to out of combat but to avoid being annoying too much, getting crippled by this won’t put you into combat. It will just slow you down if you don’t coordinate. swiftness stack after an encounter.

And Yes more CMs is also an option. I gave this as an example for a way without as much work and also allowing more classes into the meta. Think revenant, support ele.

Thing is the “annoying” thing of being in combat is the move speed decrease which the cripple will cause regardless you are in combat or not and honesty theres no real reason to coordinate your swiftness if ou will not get into combat after that.

Lets say when you run under the platforms in thaumanova to get to the various sections of the fractal, theres no mobs or dmg that you need to quickly avoid or will have to deal with so having to stack swiftness for that would just be a thing you need to do jsut to avoid the cripple, same thing with molten furnace while w8 for the drill to move having cripple there is not really needed and jsut aplying it for the sake of cripple isnt reall fun.

Again im not against the cripple but where it makes sense like before an encounter that cant me skipped(either with stealth or w/e) or when theres generally a state of constand combat during the majority of the run (urban battleground for example)Then yeah sure its fun and it makes ppl swap weapons skills etc to blast swiftness.

I’d also suggest instead of having might last less have the bosses have like a buff that makes them take less dmg and having permamight will be ideal there or less it takes longer. That way you dont really need to change gear food to jsut get the 20% boon durration.

Makes a lot of sense. How about:

1. being combat only.
2. changed to Amplified Weakness: Striking a foe with less than 20 stacks of might will grant them protection(2s) and inflict you with weakness(3s). 10 icd

BeLZedaR.4790:

zealex.9410:

BeLZedaR.4790:

zealex.9410:

With most of them i agree the only thing id change is make the insability of swiftness only happen during combat

Reasons: Stacking or not swiftness is not a sign of fractals being easier its just an annoying factor im ok with it being something you get during combat so before an encounter you stack swifteness that way you avoid the criple and you and your party can move faster from aoes etc. Having it as a perma debuff is just unfun.

But it makes me thonk a more interesting and fun way but argueably more slow in the making would be to just introduce more cm like the one the 100 frac has.

Yeah I couldn’t find a way to express it in a short sentence as what it is. It does apply to out of combat but to avoid being annoying too much, getting crippled by this won’t put you into combat. It will just slow you down if you don’t coordinate. swiftness stack after an encounter.

And Yes more CMs is also an option. I gave this as an example for a way without as much work and also allowing more classes into the meta. Think revenant, support ele.

Thing is the “annoying” thing of being in combat is the move speed decrease which the cripple will cause regardless you are in combat or not and honesty theres no real reason to coordinate your swiftness if ou will not get into combat after that.

Lets say when you run under the platforms in thaumanova to get to the various sections of the fractal, theres no mobs or dmg that you need to quickly avoid or will have to deal with so having to stack swiftness for that would just be a thing you need to do jsut to avoid the cripple, same thing with molten furnace while w8 for the drill to move having cripple there is not really needed and jsut aplying it for the sake of cripple isnt reall fun.

Again im not against the cripple but where it makes sense like before an encounter that cant me skipped(either with stealth or w/e) or when theres generally a state of constand combat during the majority of the run (urban battleground for example)Then yeah sure its fun and it makes ppl swap weapons skills etc to blast swiftness.

I’d also suggest instead of having might last less have the bosses have like a buff that makes them take less dmg and having permamight will be ideal there or less it takes longer. That way you dont really need to change gear food to jsut get the 20% boon durration.

Makes a lot of sense. How about:

1. being combat only.
2. changed to Amplified Weakness: Striking a foe with less than 20 stacks of might will grant them protection(2s) and inflict you with weakness(3s). 10 icd

“vulnerability on enemies lasts 33% less” ? instead of weakness? weakness also works and maybe give a 4 sec icd on prot coz if there wasnt fast might recovery or boon strip the prot would stack very high but i doudgt there will be no boon strip a mesmer or something.

zealex.9410:

It wouldnt hurt the game tho what he suggest neither the experience of someone who pug or simply doesnt want the challenge. Also the guy might want to play with his friends telling him “dont play with your friends play with pugs if you want challenge is not cool” and basically thats what you say there.Might i add, jsut because there are raids doesnt mean there cant be optional added difficulty in fractals, since they want fractals to be the breach between 5man and raids they need to make them harder(for those who want to raid).

Nah, it’s ok to run it with friends. But I’m just saying that it was never intended to let fractals be harder than they actually are.
I also disagree to the fractal changes of yesterday because they made many things easier for no reason and I don’t understand those nerfs. Maybe they are looking at player numbers in higher fracs….

Overall the difficulty of T4 is fine. A lot of players isn’t even able to run higher than T2.
And at T4 there are enough groups also struggling, not to speak of level 100 cm where you only succeed if you meet likewise players (“title, food, pots”) otherwise it’s most likely that you don’t even see the second/third boss.
In one of their latest comments Anet devs were saying that some of the T4 fractals are a stepping stone into raids. I think they were successful with that. After beating level 100, highest swamp, highest chaos there isn’t a bigger gap to face Escort, Trio or VG.
While I can understand that some of us can’t have enough of challenging content we have to admit that GW2 isn’t really the right game for us. Don’t understand me wrong I like running T4 after work. On the one hand it’s a little kittenallenging with pugs, on the other I know I will succeed no matter what and can also relax during the runs.

Vinceman.4572:

zealex.9410:

It wouldnt hurt the game tho what he suggest neither the experience of someone who pug or simply doesnt want the challenge. Also the guy might want to play with his friends telling him “dont play with your friends play with pugs if you want challenge is not cool” and basically thats what you say there.Might i add, jsut because there are raids doesnt mean there cant be optional added difficulty in fractals, since they want fractals to be the breach between 5man and raids they need to make them harder(for those who want to raid).

Nah, it’s ok to run it with friends. But I’m just saying that it was never intended to let fractals be harder than they actually are.
I also disagree to the fractal changes of yesterday because they made many things easier for no reason and I don’t understand those nerfs. Maybe they are looking at player numbers in higher fracs….

Overall the difficulty of T4 is fine. A lot of players isn’t even able to run higher than T2.
And at T4 there are enough groups also struggling, not to speak of level 100 cm where you only succeed if you meet likewise players (“title, food, pots”) otherwise it’s most likely that you don’t even see the second/third boss.
In one of their latest comments Anet devs were saying that some of the T4 fractals are a stepping stone into raids. I think they were successful with that. After beating level 100, highest swamp, highest chaos there isn’t a bigger gap to face Escort, Trio or VG.
While I can understand that some of us can’t have enough of challenging content we have to admit that GW2 isn’t really the right game for us.

Well the player base that asks for challenging 5 man or more man content is there they will have to give something for those ppl as well since in my experience these players are mostly veterans and long standing players. Also no one suggested that the t4 difficulty should be higher, i suggested just adding on top of it as optional content. I understnand what you say tho but from gw1 all the way to here with frac 100 cm and the raids they proven the can make and want to make challenging content they just need to further expand on it as optional difficulty.

BeLZedaR.4790:

And Yes more CMs is also an option. I gave this as an example for a way without as much work and also allowing more classes into the meta. Think revenant, support ele.

Support ele is bae in cm 100 coz of the range and rev is actually really solid for boon durr as well as the tremendous amount of cc they bring.

zealex.9410:

“vulnerability on enemies lasts 33% less” ? instead of weakness? weakness also works and maybe give a 4 sec icd on prot coz if there wasnt fast might recovery or boon strip the prot would stack very high but i doudgt there will be no boon strip a mesmer or something.

With the implementation I proposed 5 people attacking triggering this on cooldown will cause a ~100% protection uptime. Keeping it like this will punish less if one party member has to kite away for a flux bomb or whatever and loses high might stacks. This will not force you into boon strip if you can keep might for most of the time. (Estimated protection uptime = 100% – %uptime on 20+ stacks on party average). Also both putting out conditions on the party and having boons on the boss makes it a little more attractive to run necromancers as an off-dps. Also vulnerability lasting less is likely not going to be a factor with all the vuln flying around unless the modifier is insane.

Vinceman.4572:

BeLZedaR.4790:

T4s in current iteration are too easy for me personally

Stop running in a static group and pug them. The challenge is much bigger than to rush through it with friends. In some of these runs you have to carry others very hard.
Second option is to play raids. Fractals are in the right spot now and the real challenge are raids with challenge mode.
I don’t think we need more harder stuff in fractals besides 3-4- challenge modes like in level 100.

But then the isue is still there of fractals themselves not offering any real difficulty. Sure in a pug you have difficulty but that’s because you’re running with a full Carrion ele not because the content itself is difficult.

Wasabi Kitty.8247:

Vinceman.4572:

BeLZedaR.4790:

T4s in current iteration are too easy for me personally

Stop running in a static group and pug them. The challenge is much bigger than to rush through it with friends. In some of these runs you have to carry others very hard.
Second option is to play raids. Fractals are in the right spot now and the real challenge are raids with challenge mode.
I don’t think we need more harder stuff in fractals besides 3-4- challenge modes like in level 100.

But then the isue is still there of fractals themselves not offering any real difficulty. Sure in a pug you have difficulty but that’s because you’re running with a full Carrion ele not because the content itself is difficult.

I don’t see how the carrion ele would be the source of the problem. Difficulty in pugs is due to not properly performing mechanics. Not stat choice of one party member.

If that was the case Magi druids would have been the first to go.