Guild Wars 2

Is it me or fractals got easier since the last patch. I’m not talking only about new Thaumanova which is really made easier because of the new mechanics i belive but also the things like health of the enemies.
For example in snow fractal the elementals at the begining when you protect the fire had much more health. Now i just hit them twice and they are down.
I’m talking about T4 fractals mainly. Basically they now feel like T3 or even 2 sometimes.
Were fractals really changed to be easier of am i just imagining things? Because i wouldn’t be happy about those changes. I don’t really want t4 fractals to be easy. I felt like they are already getting to easy even before.

I’d like to know the state of fractals as well, but on the other end – I’ve been putting off t4 because of the difficulty.

PvE content autonerfs itself as players become more familiar with how the encounters function.

Have a look at the patch notes and you will recognize that there have been several nerfs which leads to easier fracs:

- Aetherblade
- Chaos Isles
- Snowblind
- Underground Facility
- Thaumanova

Vinceman.4572:

Have a look at the patch notes and you will recognize that there have been several nerfs which leads to easier fracs:

- Aetherblade
- Chaos Isles
- Snowblind
- Underground Facility
- Thaumanova

They were terrible before, Aetherblade and Thaumanova bosses that is, it wasn’t fun at all getting bombed/pulled out of no where and had to wait forever till the golems shields ran out in Aetherblade, while it was big hp sponge and invisible projectiles + bombs 5 times in a row (on top of the chaos anomaly one sometimes) in Thaumanova.

Amineo.8951:

Vinceman.4572:

Have a look at the patch notes and you will recognize that there have been several nerfs which leads to easier fracs:

- Aetherblade
- Chaos Isles
- Snowblind
- Underground Facility
- Thaumanova

They were terrible before, Aetherblade and Thaumanova bosses that is, it wasn’t fun at all getting bombed/pulled out of no where and had to wait forever till the golems shields ran out in Aetherblade, while it was big hp sponge and invisible projectiles + bombs 5 times in a row (on top of the chaos anomaly one sometimes) in Thaumanova.

Well my guild never had a problem at Aetherblade with golems. Even with pug it can be fast on T4.

Amineo.8951:

They were terrible before, Aetherblade and Thaumanova bosses that is, it wasn’t fun at all getting bombed/pulled out of no where and had to wait forever till the golems shields ran out in Aetherblade, while it was big hp sponge and invisible projectiles + bombs 5 times in a row (on top of the chaos anomaly one sometimes) in Thaumanova.

Terrible in design? Yes!

Terrible in difficulty? No…frickin…way

Most of the changes to Thaumanova are okay but level 97 is a joke now compared to pre-patch. It’s the 4th highest fractal and no challenge any longer (Well, it wasn’t rly hard before but at least it seperated terrible players from decent ones).

And Aetherblade golems (“final boss”) were problem in pugs? Nope, not at all. This was easy soloable for an average T4 player.

Vinceman.4572:

Amineo.8951:

They were terrible before, Aetherblade and Thaumanova bosses that is, it wasn’t fun at all getting bombed/pulled out of no where and had to wait forever till the golems shields ran out in Aetherblade, while it was big hp sponge and invisible projectiles + bombs 5 times in a row (on top of the chaos anomaly one sometimes) in Thaumanova.

Terrible in design? Yes!

Terrible in difficulty? No…frickin…way

Most of the changes to Thaumanova are okay but level 97 is a joke now compared to pre-patch. It’s the 4th highest fractal and no challenge any longer (Well, it wasn’t rly hard before but at least it seperated terrible players from decent ones).

And Aetherblade golems (“final boss”) were problem in pugs? Nope, not at all. This was easy soloable for an average T4 player.

lol not easily soloable for the average t4 player, easily soloable for a good t4 necro. lots of people hit the floor to those silly things. fortunately the pug community adopted the necro drool meta just so idiots can be elevated to the level of “stays alive under all circumstances” and the party doesn’t have to bash its face on the same fight more than twice.

this was a pug killer and has been since it’s release. it’s good to see brutal and unforgiving things make way for challenge motes. at least people can get their dailies done.

insanemaniac.2456:

Vinceman.4572:

Amineo.8951:

They were terrible before, Aetherblade and Thaumanova bosses that is, it wasn’t fun at all getting bombed/pulled out of no where and had to wait forever till the golems shields ran out in Aetherblade, while it was big hp sponge and invisible projectiles + bombs 5 times in a row (on top of the chaos anomaly one sometimes) in Thaumanova.

Terrible in design? Yes!

Terrible in difficulty? No…frickin…way

Most of the changes to Thaumanova are okay but level 97 is a joke now compared to pre-patch. It’s the 4th highest fractal and no challenge any longer (Well, it wasn’t rly hard before but at least it seperated terrible players from decent ones).

And Aetherblade golems (“final boss”) were problem in pugs? Nope, not at all. This was easy soloable for an average T4 player.

lol not easily soloable for the average t4 player, easily soloable for a good t4 necro. lots of people hit the floor to those silly things. fortunately the pug community adopted the necro drool meta just so idiots can be elevated to the level of “stays alive under all circumstances” and the party doesn’t have to bash its face on the same fight more than twice.

this was a pug killer and has been since it’s release. it’s good to see brutal and unforgiving things make way for challenge motes. at least people can get their dailies done.

Haven’t had issues with pugs since months even without necros or anything special. You can easily see and dodge every golem pull if you don’t run in the center (still getting enough group buffs). In addition with defensive support skills it’s no problem to kite around with every class and avoid the laser beams.

I have more problems in this fractal with pugs in the room with the switches and the laser beams.

Vinceman.4572:

insanemaniac.2456:

Vinceman.4572:

Amineo.8951:

They were terrible before, Aetherblade and Thaumanova bosses that is, it wasn’t fun at all getting bombed/pulled out of no where and had to wait forever till the golems shields ran out in Aetherblade, while it was big hp sponge and invisible projectiles + bombs 5 times in a row (on top of the chaos anomaly one sometimes) in Thaumanova.

Terrible in design? Yes!

Terrible in difficulty? No…frickin…way

Most of the changes to Thaumanova are okay but level 97 is a joke now compared to pre-patch. It’s the 4th highest fractal and no challenge any longer (Well, it wasn’t rly hard before but at least it seperated terrible players from decent ones).

And Aetherblade golems (“final boss”) were problem in pugs? Nope, not at all. This was easy soloable for an average T4 player.

lol not easily soloable for the average t4 player, easily soloable for a good t4 necro. lots of people hit the floor to those silly things. fortunately the pug community adopted the necro drool meta just so idiots can be elevated to the level of “stays alive under all circumstances” and the party doesn’t have to bash its face on the same fight more than twice.

this was a pug killer and has been since it’s release. it’s good to see brutal and unforgiving things make way for challenge motes. at least people can get their dailies done.

Haven’t had issues with pugs since months even without necros or anything special. You can easily see and dodge every golem pull if you don’t run in the center (still getting enough group buffs). In addition with defensive support skills it’s no problem to kite around with every class and avoid the laser beams.

I have more problems in this fractal with pugs in the room with the switches and the laser beams.

yeah i was referring to the fight as a whole. that includes the golems but is not limited to them. nerfing them nerfs the pug killing aspect of the fight. if you cant solo, but you can 5 man or 4 man, then it helps that your 2 weakest links arent laying around dead after being pulled through the lightning or something.

what ben ought to do here is add a real 100 nightmare type challenge mote to every fractal, even though i know thats wishful thinking. a full challenge mote daily set would really harken back to pre hot 50s.

Other than dredge, cultists and ascalonians having insane ferocity and dealing 15-25K critical hits they never dealt before I’ve noticed no differences in the past weeks.

Zenith.7301:

PvE content autonerfs itself as players become more familiar with how the encounters function.

Awesome phrasing.

Players evolve their ability to smash content faster than developers can deliver.

daros.3407:

Amineo.8951:

Vinceman.4572:

Have a look at the patch notes and you will recognize that there have been several nerfs which leads to easier fracs:

- Aetherblade
- Chaos Isles
- Snowblind
- Underground Facility
- Thaumanova

They were terrible before, Aetherblade and Thaumanova bosses that is, it wasn’t fun at all getting bombed/pulled out of no where and had to wait forever till the golems shields ran out in Aetherblade, while it was big hp sponge and invisible projectiles + bombs 5 times in a row (on top of the chaos anomaly one sometimes) in Thaumanova.

Well my guild never had a problem at Aetherblade with golems. Even with pug it can be fast on T4.

Relative to amount of necro/condi because conditions would still tick through the shield and not daze you.

Obviously the mechanic is not to allow golems to be touched by lasers but that requires way more coordination than most pugs will muster.

Do it with no necro/condi builds and the encounter gets a lot worse in a pug.

MithranArkanere.8957:

Other than dredge, cultists and ascalonians having insane ferocity and dealing 15-25K critical hits they never dealt before I’ve noticed no differences in the past weeks.

They’ve always dealt that damage, which is why they’re unenjoyable and you likely just benefited from well spammed blinds/block/CC to keep the ridiculous autoattacks in control.

At high scales cultists/ascalonian warriors/dredge could easily melee you for 10k+ crits. Always has been the case. Dumb because it’s hard to see the tell in between 5 trash mobs who haphazardly determine aggro (assuming group with no toughness).

I think the GW1 model was much better, GW2 is too fixated on telegraphs but the thing about telegraphs is that they need to be visible and not mired in effects clutters that exists in the game.

GW1 had cast bars visible for important skills.

The only problem with cast bars for important skills on trash mobs in fractals is that its not necessarily “important” skills that are dealing 10k+ damage on higher tiers due to how the scaling works. If they got a cast bar for any attack that could hit for that much, then all of their attacks would have one and it wouldn’t make a difference, but it would come with a lot of visual clutter

OriOri.8724:

The only problem with cast bars for important skills on trash mobs in fractals is that its not necessarily “important” skills that are dealing 10k+ damage on higher tiers due to how the scaling works. If they got a cast bar for any attack that could hit for that much, then all of their attacks would have one and it wouldn’t make a difference, but it would come with a lot of visual clutter

Yeah, which is why I think the nightmare fractal veterans and bosses are the gold standard of how visual communication should function in GW2.

Autoattacks should never be the main threat of a mob because scaling is dumb.

Shift the damage onto important skills that either need a breakbar broken like last boss of chaos fractal or simply create telegraphs like the Hierophant in cliffside where the hits that hit hard are properly telegraphed with an obvious overhead hammer smash.

Hell, the majority of HoT mobs in the HoT maps have PROPER tells that are clearly visible to the player character. Stick to those.

It’s especially bad if you’re playing a tall male norn and the target whose attack animations you’re supposed to see is covered by your character model.

Fractals do seem easier. But i no life them a lot. So maybe im improving :-D