Guild Wars 2

I am really having a hard time grasping what is expected of players in the new Living Story dungeons.
I can’t figure out what we are supposed to do and how.

Too many instances end in characters getting downed with one or two “visible” hits; I hate seeing my health bar instantly disappear when I have no debuffs and no visible enemy anywhere near me.

The Aetherblade Retreat instance features a fight where you have to run in circles while targeting specific enemies and dodging a mobile wall that appears able to insta-gib a player.

Please STOP including so many mechanics, abilities, and attacks that instantly disable a player! That is not implementing strategy, and it is not adding difficulty. It is just a cheap punishment for making a poorly defined mistake. All too often I honestly wonder if a character who was stripped down to their underwear would last just as long as a fully-armored one. It also renders Reviving a downed player an exercise in futility. If you intend to make a scenario where it is not possible to Revive a player, then you MUST make it possible for less than a full party to complete it. Otherwise it is NOT possible to complete a scenario if a player is downed.

The revive mechanic is already a little spotty as it is. It has decent functionality in map and even instance exploration (with a few exceptions for specific classes), but in encounters or bossfights it is far too cumbersome and renders others in the party far too vulnerable— at least in practice. I know that some classes have abilities which can ease this burden and some gear can help as well, but they are not defined very clearly or are confusing to use in their own right.

I am told that we can avoid much in this specific instance by platform jumping across boxes, but the platform jumping in this game is actually very poor;
Your characters feet have no effect on where you are “standing”, you have no real way of controlling the height of your jumps or where you land, the physics/collision detection/ clipping errors in game make jumps spotty at best, and the artwork and scenery (while beautiful) has no real effect on what areas of the terrain can and can’t support a character’s weight.

The platform jumping in this game is actually one of it’s poorest qualities. Basing survival in a combat scenario on it is just frustrating.

I have no doubt that these scenarios CAN be completed. But I just plain don’t WANT to anymore. Wrestling with awkward controls and ill-defined objectives is not a measure of skill.
I don’t care what the reward is, this isn’t fun.

I didnt even read your entire post and I got that you were crying about a mechanic that THE GAME ITSELF TELLS YOU ABOUT AND HOW TO AVOID. Also these mechanics are designed for challenge. Not all content in a game is suppose to be stand and auto attack because that is boring. So, if you are really having that hard of a time with the dungeon, do some research. Go to Dulfy’s blog where there is a guide for nearly everything.

Here is the debate that I see; If the Devs come out with a dungeon that is deemed too “easy” by the majority of the players, the player base will want the next dungeon that comes out to have more mechanics. If the dungeon is deemed too “hard” by the majority, the players will want the next dungeon to be easier.

Not everyone is going to be happy regardless of how hard the dungeon is. Your opinion is that the dungeon is too mechanics heavy. However, there are topics in the dungeon forum + other forums that praise the Devs for making the dungeon challenging.

It’s fair for you to write out your opinion of why you don’t like the dungeon and I don’t think you should be lambasted because you don’t like it. However, keep in mind that many people have praised the difficulty + mechanics of this dungeon and really like the way the Devs have been going dungeon-wise.

I personally like this dungeon because I needed something to try running. Because the normal permanent dungeons have been well…permanent, it’s easy to master them and then get stuck in a “now what?” phase of dungeon running. Sure, the mechanics took a while to grasp, but that’s what had to happen in every other dungeon. In short, I really like this dungeon and the way they’ve been going with dual boss battles and stuff like that.

My only problem with this post is that the OP is talking like everyone feels the same way as he does and frankly all hes doing is complaining. Anyone who has played this dungeon through more than once think’s it is still easy. The mechanic’s are very well designed and it does reward some defense in certain parts when running with PUG’s. But the majority of it is simple. All i see is someone complaining and to be honest I hate complaining. Instead people should seek help, or offer constructive feedback on the dungeon. Complaining solves nothing.