Guild Wars 2

I know this thread has probably been made before, but I couldn’t find a thread myself that I felt was general enough to just post my thoughts on dungeons, so I made this.

I personally believe after having ran a couple of dungeons and seeing changes ANet have made to dungeons since release, that the difficulty they want dungeons to be is too high. The very fact there are two modes (Story and Explorable) should mean that one is easy and doable by nearly all players, and the other is harder and meant to provide better rewards and challenge for those that want it. I even read before release that this was the case.

I was excited when my guild got together to try Ascalonian Catacombs (Story Mode) and the difference in difficulty from levelling/events was -huge-, getting 2-shotted, running back, getting 2-shotted again. I understand it’s going to be harder, and practice makes perfect, so after using my dodging more and focusing more on survivability things did get a little better, but we were still getting killed loads and most trash fights ended up being zergs from the waypoint. It also seemed stupid that the actual bosses were a lot easier than the trash, which have too much health and could do with having their damage reduced.

It being the first dungeon I really got a blow to my self-esteem at this, if i’m doing so badly here, I’ll never be able to do the ones later on. Then I heard that apparently Caudecus’ Manor was easier, so we headed there. Unfortunately, it was right after ANet buffed the place and we ended up in much the same situation there, wipe after wipe after wipe until we gave up and all felt like crap with a fair amount of silver wasted on repair bills.

I’m all for explorable mode being really tough and all, but Story Mode is supposed to be the easier version open to everyone, but it’s so difficult already, and from what I’ve heard from others, there’s no difficulty curve going through the dungeons in turn, apparently the difficulties of the dungeons are a bit random as you gain access to new ones. And before people say I should just get better gear, I had pretty good gear for my level when I tried these dungeons, it shouldn’t be a ‘requirement’ to be decked out in on-level-rares to be able to finish these.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that Story Mode dungeons should be made easier, as it scares off a lot of people new to them and is frankly too difficult.

I believe the level requirement for story modes is very mis-leading, along with explorable modes. I think think they should inform people better on what it really takes to do a dungeon—having all your traits and top gear. This makes dungeons a lot more doable and saves yourself from all those wipes because most people think being lvl35 is all you need—sometimes it is, but it’s not the best idea. I can’t agree with you to making it easier, but I will offer my help to guide you or just add more muscle to your party. I do AC, CM, TA, and COF. But prefer AC the most. PM me in game if you ever need help.

If you have difficulty with trash but not bosses, it means your group is lacking in the support and control areas. This is natural because most players don’t develop these skills without being forced too—the regular PvE content is far too easy to force players to develop these skills.

For story mode, the bar is set low enough that any group of 5 players should be able to do it.

Explorable modes require a more balanced group—in theory. In practice the bar is higher than story mode, but imbalanced groups that know the content often do just fine.

Being able to handle multiple mobs that are, themselves, threats is something not experienced elsewhere, or experienced so seldom it is a non-issue.

If you are waypoint zerging, you’re doing something wrong. You need to go into each fight with a clear target and a plan to mitigate the havoc each foe can cause. Failure to overcome each challenge generally means either your plan was flawed, or your execution was. Refine your plan and go again, or refine your implementation and go again, but each try should be better than the one before it.

Thats another thing not needed elsewhere—a plan.

I feel that the introduction to dungeons does nto do enough to prepare the player for the severe shift in difficulty, however, I don’t feel there is anything wrong with the dungeons themselves, simply the expectations that players have when they first approach them.

I can agree with that, if they made hearts and events a bit harder and put more emphasis on learning tactics that are required in dungeons, possibly from a tutorial area, it would help a lot, though I still think that trash health pools and damage could be reduced by about 20-30% for story mode.

Explorable dungeons are in fact easy in GW 2 (but you need to learn them first).

Ive done about 200+ explorable dungeons (850 hours played) I know the tactics and I ve done them with a lot of different set ups and I can tell you. When you have group of players that know what to do, its so easy and boring its not even funny. And I am talking about every expos, from AC to Arah.

Yes there are few bosses where you need to think, like lupicus, but only FEW. Thats sad because Areanet claimed how Explorable dungeons are gonna be hard and how they are ment to be only done by really skilled and coordinated group. Where infact you can complete all of them with random pugs

My thoughts,
Dog

All AC explorable routes are completely doable in a party of lv35 toons, geared in green lv35 items.

I have yet to try other dungeons with a bare minimum team, but i can’t see CM or TA being more demanding, and SE is currently waiting for a fix which will make it only easier.

Stop running glass cannon or magic find spec, ignore the traitline giving you power and generally invest in survivability before you deem anything ‘too hard’.

Dungeons are fine expect some of them which are too easy.

If dungeons are supposed to be a slight challenge for the average player this still means that about 50% of the community will struggle to get them done. So, if you need a few runs before you figure out what’s going on you are not necessarily a bad player, probably you are just a little below average, just like about half the community.

I understand you. I felt the same way. Our guild felt that way . we had such a hard time in dungeons until we discovered that it wasn’t about damage , it was about support . If you have everyone’s builds support focused you will clear these no problems. I run a full heal/support guardian and I can pretty much keep the group up at all times. The dungeons are hard. but once you get the fight mechanics down you will do fine. Give it time, learn the mechanics… go more support focused until you have it down to spec more DPS oriented. I know you will do fine. I have a cousin who is not the best gamer in the world… like… at all… but I have seen him learning these mechanics and he is doing great… so you will get it… just give it time.

I can see where the OP is coming from.

1. It’s a huge step up from your normal PvE experience into your first Story Mode dungeon. Mobs have a lot of HP, bosses hit HARD and you still haven’t learned the basics of group play.

2. The difference in difficulty between Story Mode and Explorable Mode is hardly noticeable. Sure, some mechanics may be less forgiving in Explorable Mode or require better tactics but Story Mode can still be quite challenging. I can understand why people would find the learning curve to be rather steep.

OP, I don’t think dungeons are too hard, they are often just unfair.
Hard means: you need to play very well in order to overcome a challenge and if you do play very well, then you will succeed without too much trouble. Unfair means: no matter how good you play, you’re always in danger of dying to random stuff or attacks that are too fast or do too much damage, have a too large radius or frequency, etc.. Dungeons in GW2 are full of unfair stuff that’s almost impossible to avoid, especially if you happen to use melee weapons.

I believe the dungeons are too easy at the moment… Once you learn how the strategy of each dungeon it becomes cake and pretty boring at times.