Guild Wars 2

I haven’t played GW2 in very long time but I’d really like to. I have tried some different MMO’s and well… they just suck big time in every single way compared to GW2.

I’ve spent in GW2 about 2 years (with long pauses) and while I was leveling and gearing up my 2 characters anticipating some real fun at the end of the road it was like a huge disappointment… Let me explain:

PvP or WvWvW isn’t my thing really, I mostly enjoy PvE and Dungeons/FoTM. Now big problem is: no matter how good your toon built, you absolutely need good and pretty skilled players to finish most of its content without constant wipes and pain. Some stages in FoTM above 20 is purely impossible without certain gear and very good communication (like Aetherblade Fractal fighting Mai Trin under cannon barrage). Every time doing it with PUG failed.

Some dungeons are cakewalk when others are almost impossible if everyone in the party doesn’t know exactly what to do, it’s not like one can improvise, it’s more like doing math, knowing sequences, standing in certain point at specific times and etc. Example: CoF p1 – probably easiest and fastest, never failed it in PUGs. And some HoTW or Arah which doing with PUGs is like a suicide when rewards aren’t drastically higher. I can finish CoF about 3 times (or more) while doing once Arah even in good party.

I neven had any issues and every run was fluid in FoTM or any Dungeon with my guildies or friends, but almost every run with PUGs ended up in someone ragequiting in the middle or destroing every part of gear, bashing head to the wall and unability to finish last stage of some level so all quit – no reward – wasted time.

I don’t (can’t) play for long sessions and getting ppl for Dung/FoTM run that I need is quite problematic, cause everyone has their own business and that’s ok, but why Anet made such high skillcap and forced coordination for those runs is beyond me… Sometimes you just want get in random party and have a good run, without kicking yourself over but that’s somehow not possible here.

It was pretty good news to me when LFG function was finally in and working properly, but I had use for it only finding groups for CoF or some easy TW paths which I have beaten countless times, otherwise getting in PUGs is only pain – no fun, no reward =/

I know there’s nothing can be done about it, it’s just sad… And yes, before someone states, I am casual player, I won’t have fun or ability soloing Dungeons, farming for Legendaries or full ascended (have staff for ele tho). And it’s quite frustrating that best part of the game is locked out from me like this…

That would be very good idea creating at least for Dungeon paths like p1 – easy, p2 – medium, p3 – hard with bigger rewards and etc. So with FoTM, not mixing up randomly hard with very easy ones, more complicated system would be much better IMO.

> And it’s quite frustrating that best part of the game is locked out from me like this…

You hate it, but it’s the “best part of the game”. What? if they changed it to your liking, it wouldn’t be “the best part of the game” anymore, it wouldn’t be any different from open world trash. We don’t want dungeons to be all like CoF p1, thank you very much.

If by best part, what you meant is earning gold, farming silverwastes should be enough reward for you.

You didn’t get my point, I don’t want every path like CoF1, I want balanced paths, not like it is now from insane to very easy. CoF is boring and ppl doing only for farm, I don’t care about farm as I stated, I want fun, and I don’t “hate” anything.

“Balanced paths”? But 90% of the content in this game is too easy, if anything is “unbalanced” it’s the lack of challenging content outside of high level fractals.

Keep practicing, try getting together with better players and learn from them. Arah shouldn’t be grueling because it’s actually very soloable (except Tar). If your party fails, well pick up the slack and put it on your back. Same with Mai Trin.

That’s the beauty of this game, that usually you can be awesome and pull even the worst players through content. It’s nice. No deep reliance on each other. You can help each other, but you don’t have to rely on them.

The general consensus of the dungeon community is that we want harder content, not easier. If you’re having a hard time doing the content that we have atm, you’re either playing bad or your team is playing bad.

Dungeons. Fractals above 20.
Skill.
Except hotw p3 last boss which is indeed annoying I can’t think of something hard to beat with 5 people.
Is really 1 dungeon path ruining the whole instanced pve experience for you?

@Jerus
Well, for me it was actual reliance on each other the cornerstone of Dungeons/FoTM, when doing flawlessly ANY run with guildies, we simply talked to each other over the mic and there was no single problem, just like knife through butter. When I go with PUGs, I know what to do but 1 or 2 guys may be running off or aggro some mobs they shouldn’t have and entire run goes to kitten. You just can’t expect same level of communication from random ppl, and that’s what this game is begging for. You can’t pull everything off in solo, when tough mobs getting in your face everytime cause someone spams their AoE at everything they see…

In my experience success of the run relies on 90% of communication – 5% of individual skill and 5% of gear/build.

@robertul
No, it’s more like 70% chance of fail in every attempt trying to do high FoTM or hard Dungeon path with PUGs so I stopped trying.

There are a few ways to make it easier.

Like play a guardian, since reflect makes a few boss easier. Wear normad/cleric for Mai Trin and just keep rezing your dead teamates. If you have problem with molten duo, just switch to a ranger and pew pew at 1500 range.

You say comunication is key, and thats why PuGs fail.

Do you say hi, when you first join? ( or any other way of breaking the ice so to speak )

Do you say to your group that there is multiple strategies
at this point and which way would they like to do it? ( so your all on the same page )

Like you say, comunitcation is key. Of course you do need to be alittle carefull of how you ask, as you dont want to put anyone on the spot and all that, although its well worth finding a nice way to ask cause once your all on the same page the run flys

Sarah

If I ever pug it usually goes like this:

Me: Hi
Pugs: hi
Me: Mind if I go engi?
Pugs: Yes, go warrior
Me: :(
Pugs: >:|
Me: leave party

Thank jebus for guildies/friends list.

@laokoko
Yes, it will make life easier for me and luckily I have guardian, did runs as him when I needed to, but still can’t save the party on most occasions. There are some tricks like luring boss to a wall, stacking up and stomping living kitten from him without anyone taking any damage, some safe spots to stand and etc. There are many situations where knowing exact pattern and quickly assigning roles to everyone is crucial. There were some funny moment where two guys went to same spot, and while they were figuring who goes where our party got stomped… Similar things happen in PUGs pretty often in my experience.

@Sarahfull
Thank you for your input, Sarah, and yes, I’m pretty polite to random ppl, always say hi’s and stuff, but there are many occasions where you simply can’t spend an hour telling ppl different tactics for each particular stage on the run, it’s much more effective to say stuff on the go and there’s big flexibility (which you need) in staying online with mics on.

I just don’t understand why Anet decided to make those events so demanding to communication between players and made so hard patterns for dungeons which you must follow to the letter and run will be flawless. Almost no room to improvise and punish entire party for failure of one guy…

If you haven’t seen guide for certain FoTMs/Dung paths, there’s no way you can figure it out yourself, and also there’s party factor, some tactics change depending on group structure (classes & weapons).

Expecting every random person who goes to Dungeon knows all that is nonsense, ppl usually play PvE MMOs to relax and have fun, not memorizing level like in some old arcade games…

Honestly if you don’t enjoy pugging I suggest either finding a dungeon oriented guild, expanding your friendslist or better yet find a static to run everything with. Communication with pugs is horrible. They usually say nothing even if you ask them a direct question and if they do answer they only speak german/french anyway…

Oh I was more meaning stuff like "do everyone know not to kill the target " and strats like that, not explaining everything :p

Although the post above me I agree with and I will add:

" the ride never ends " – always on the look out for more friends

I’m not sure how much high level fractal you do recently.

But quite honestly most of the people still doing high level fractal (eg 38, 50) are quite good.

Almost all the pug dungeon/fractal are much better compare to 1-2 years ago. If you haven’t actually tried it, I suggest you give it a go.

laokoko.7403:

I’m not sure how much high level fractal you do recently.

But quite honestly most of the people still doing high level fractal (eg 38, 50) are quite good.

Almost all the pug dungeon/fractal are much better compare to 1-2 years ago. If you haven’t actually tried it, I suggest you give it a go.

We usually just need 1 pug if we actually use the LFG. That being said, nearly all of them have been bad. For example most of them use range weapons and still suggest we bug mossman in the water. You ask them to drop 2 banners and out comes tactics and/or defense… That is ofc if they understand me, being in EU often means a language barrier.

Then again, we might have different views of “quite good” alltogether.

My current guild is pretty large and there are some ppl up for many activities at times, but main problem is that when I’m able to play quickly assemble team and start run is almost impossibe. I doubt there are guilds waiting for going in Dung/FoTM 24/7, and I can’t reserve time for this game and meet guys at something o’clock, I only can play when I have free time to play and that’s pretty random. I can be absent for few months or so, and only real option left for me is pugging. I’m sure many players are in my shoes on that account.

I acknowledge that this is MMO. and this genre mostly inspires group playstyle, but all events starting from LS to world boss and some massive chain events can be done ~solo with random zerg no problem.

My main point is: if there’s LFG, that means we WILL have PUGs no matter what, and either Dungeon/FoTM system must change so random ppl too could be able to do those event successfully or LFG will be useless, because using entire system dedicated to get ppl into groups for Dungeon-like events is adequate only for 3-4 paths from entire content, and that’s not good.

Some players say that community demands harder challenges, but to be honest, I have no idea what kind of challenge one can expect from stupid bots that are highly exploitable. Only real challenge can be achieved in PvP-like events when you compete against alive opponents. Major flaw of entire Dungeon system of GW2 is that it divides community into those who know how to do Dungeons and mainly exploits of each path either by guides or experienced mentors and those who do not. Proposing some random guys to watch guide for 15-30 mins on Youtube before going in is a joke, seriously… and if team wants to avoid numerous wipes and some raging there’s actually no way around it.

There’s not only me who thinks that way, there are some topics (even fresh ones) where players proposing some real workarounds to improve this system, with major part of those I mostly agree, sad that it most likely won’t be taken into account by Anet and no improvements will be done…

The game does a very poor job explaining mechanics. Most pugs don’t understand key dungeon mechanics and it is very hard for them to find information on how to do them. There are so many ways of doing dungeons, and every pug does it different. I think the way to help solve this problem honestly is to have ANet publish official dungeon spotlights for every path where they explain every encounter and use the most basic strategies in completing them(much like League of Legends Champion Spotlight).

Taku.6352:

If I ever pug it usually goes like this:

Me: Hi
Pugs: hi
Me: Mind if I go engi?
Pugs: Yes, go warrior
Me:
Pugs: >:|
Me: leave party

Thank jebus for guildies/friends list.

So annoying how many people still don’t understand the advantages and disadvantages of classes.

Engi has some of the best group and solo DPS and actually brings utility to groups unlike warriors.

Ridiculous mentalities people have.

TIL stat modifiers, might, fury, positioning and AOE revival aren’t group utility

You definently have to alter your playstyle somewhat when you are pugging, and finding the right balence between “my way or the high way” and letting the pugs to pug strats can be a struggle. Arah can be particularly frustrating because there are more ways an inexperienced player can jeprodize the whole team rather then just dying themselves, same with TA aether.

My suggestion would be – take guildies when you can, even if it’s not a full group. 2 good players coordinating together can carry a team, and it’s easier to suggest strats when you have someone backing you up. It’s also sometimes easier to laugh off the shenanigans pugs get up to when you’re with someone else. For arah, if you can find 2 other knowledgable people it’s almost always faster then going with a full group of pugs.

@rfdarko
You see, I wouldn’t have much problem if every player would be calm and relaxed. Ppl rage when party can’t get past some point. I have to admit though: GW2 has one of the most adult-behaving communities compared to other multiplayer gaming ones. Players are acting nice most of the time, mad rage or some threats in chat are very-very rare, most of the time ppl just quit but it also becomes very inconvinient, like being in the middle of the FoTM, someone leaves and if in 5-10 minutes noone comes party get disbanded.

I am rather calm person myself, I get frustrated at times, yes, but since I don’t take videogames seriously I never get really upset over something hard to complete and numerous attemts at it. Just wanna relax and play games for fun, not showoff or YOLO stuff.

I tried taking guildies or friends on runs with PUGs and this worked maybe 50% of the time. Mostly 2-3 guys simply can’t carry entire team in my experience, there are stages when all 5 or at least 4 have to do something specific on their own, and if 2 guys have no idea about it, we’re basically screwed.

Now, I’m not saying that I’m best at dugeon runs or something, I make mistakes, sometimes I forget stuff (it happens when you haven’t played for months or so) and I also noticed how painfull it is that you can’t remember some sequence, and PUGs in your team also can’t figure it out. When I have friends in voice chat It’s no problem, quick question – quick answer and all set. But playing by the book is not much fun really, I still believe if dungeon/FoTM system could be changed so random inexperienced ppl with limited communication can figure stuff out on the go it would be so much fun for everyone. I don’t say that those ‘elite’ challeges must go, just make biggest part of game’s content available for everyone and separate special high difficulty challenges for dedicated groups and guilds.

I would go so far with lfg that you can’t even imagine.

I would implement the following: when posting lfg i would create a special panel that pops up that allows the poster to select the range of ap he want, classes he wants and for fractals minimum ar.

If you don’t meet the requirements the lfg is grayed out and you can’t join.

I pug allmost allways since the launch and i would pay to a net to implement this. That’s how far i would go.

Oxidia.8103:

I would go so far with lfg that you can’t even imagine.

I would implement the following: when posting lfg i would create a special panel that pops up that allows the poster to select the range of ap he want, classes he wants and for fractals minimum ar.

If you don’t meet the requirements the lfg is grayed out and you can’t join.

I pug allmost allways since the launch and i would pay to a net to implement this. That’s how far i would go.

Ap means NOTHING, absolutely nothing. Sure typically under 3k means a noob, but I’ve seen epople at 4k outshine those at 25k+ so often that it’s unbelievable. Hell at this point I consider 20k+ to be worse than <3k, at least most <3k people understand they don’t knokw what they’re doing.

I have no desire to have AP be a means of categorizing quality of play. Give me anything else but that.

My EU account has 1.5K AP or something.

Jerus.4350:

Ap means NOTHING, absolutely nothing. Sure typically under 3k means a noob, but I’ve seen epople at 4k outshine those at 25k+ so often that it’s unbelievable. Hell at this point I consider 20k+ to be worse than <3k, at least most <3k people understand they don’t knokw what they’re doing.

I have no desire to have AP be a means of categorizing quality of play. Give me anything else but that.

i didn’t say ap means quality, just i would like to see the options to do that. Because people write ap they want in their party description, if you don’t have it and join, you will most likely be kicked, so why have the option to join it anyway and save yourself from looking into two loading screens. You get what i mean.

Iris Ng.9845:

My EU account has 1.5K AP or something.

Um…good for you i guess?

Nikaido.3457:

“Balanced paths”? But 90% of the content in this game is too easy, if anything is “unbalanced” it’s the lack of challenging content outside of high level fractals.

The unbalanced part is that a random drop in open world from a bag can give me a 3g worth Charged Lodestone which happens to be the reward for completing Arah p1/2.

And the difference is I can get many bags with many items worth 3+ gold, but I cannot get that 3 gold reward from completing Arah more than once per day.

And then there’s p3 Arah rewarding 1 gold, what an insult. I’m also curious why something as easy as AC rewards more gold for each path than any of the other dungeons besides Arah p1/2/4

Those mob packs in Arah should drop champion level chest loots, maybe people would bother to do them in that case.

And just remove the daily lockout on the gold reward for completing a dungeon, it’s there for no reason whatsoever. Just shift the tokens onto the daily if you want to gate tokens.

Not sure what servers you’re on, but pretty much every PUG I’ve ever run with at 35+ has been good. We might wipe once or twice because someone makes a mistake, they say “oops” we laugh and then go back in and slaughter everything. below 30 can be a bit hit and miss. A number of times, I and another guildie have had to carry the team in things like Mai Trin. Below 20 is like a lottery, I’ve had to kick people a couple of times for being just so bad. Even casually, I wouldn’t normally spend more than an hour and a half in fractals even with bads.