Guild Wars 2

First off i’ll start by saying that the dungeon is, by far, the best thing in GW2 and the team behind it should be commended. I just have one huge issue and thats the difficulty scaling to the lowest in the group.

Already (a few hours after launch) im seeing minimum requirements for being in the party. The very fact that each difficulty level takes upwards of 90mins means that most wont let lower difficulty levels in. What difference does it make whether someone has completed the 2nd or 3rd difficulty? Its just needlessly segregating players in my opinion. Personally I would allow the party leader to see the group’s difficulty level and allow anyone to join. I have a few ‘dungeon buddies’ that are already ahead of me and they know im a competent enough player to handle what they can handle yet we cannot join the same party. The same for guildies….one was below me and so the party I got myself into wouldnt accept the lower difficulty player.

Remove this stupid idea please because its the game mechanic thats causing horrible amounts of elitism for no reason whatsoever.

It should either be an average of everyone in the group; or allow anyone to enter any fractal level – but make it so they only go up by 1 level at a time; and not level up a ton to match the party.

Of course, you then have to think abotu the later fractals – which require Agony-resistance gear – which is another form of gating for parties.
Agony is a crap system anyway – I hope they scrap it soon.

I personally think the fractals difficulty system is ok…but at the same time I think its still too difficult for many players. I think I’m pretty decent at my class (guardian) and I try to help others in my guild. We’re fairly new and many of my players aren’t top gamers. Because of this, we are having great difficulty completing the fractals. I don’t think it should be so hard that its no longer enjoyable for any lvl of gamer. And that same would go for all dungeons in my opinion. I know many players that’s had difficulty in the dungeons and can’t complete them or get kicked out of the party because they are the weakest link. The dungeons should be enjoyable for everyone of all skill ranges. And I think something needs to be set in place to help…..

Ive done 6 fractals so far and had very few issues. The difficulty scaling isnt what im talking about its the fact that the maximum difficulty level you can choose is the highest common one….which is essentially scaling it to the lowest in the group. This is making it hard to find a party when everyone is shouting ‘lf1m Frac 3’ or worse and im only ‘Frac 2’. I know for a fact im good for another few difficulty levels yet as the content hasnt been too challenging so far.

Give it a few weeks and I think youve got a huge issue on your hands. A lot of people will have reached a set difficulty (call it 10). Any new players, whether theyre low level or 80 with full exotics, wont be able to easily form a dungeon group and will therefore miss out on content. Chances are theyre good enough for difficulty 10 but will never get the chance to even experience the dungeon unless they run into people in the same situation as them.

whats the big issue with letting the party leader choose the difficulty?…
Now I have to find a group that can play my progression and theirs in order for me to get a higher difficulty.

I agree that a more sensible mechanic would be to have party leader select difficulty level, or even just call a vote on difficulty level based on their own max. That way you don’t risk being unable to find a group for your own difficulty, provided you’re willing to bring someone who hasn’t done lower difficulties in.

Could the powers that be possibly make a statement regarding this please?

Im away all day and when I get back i’ll report my findings on how hard it is to get a party (less than one day after launch may I add). Im hoping everything will be fine.

What are u talking about select difficulty??

“The dungeon will remember your progress, and will poll the party’s levels when you enter, scaling the dungeon to the highest common attained level”

It needs a selector to let the leader select levels lower than this as well. Eventually characters will become gated at higher levels.

If I am running with a steady group of friends and we are all stuck on fractal 6, and we want to do 5 because we can actually complete it at our level of agony resist, we cant. That is a problem with this gating issue. If I am far off let me know though, I’ve only done one run so far and love it. But this definitely looks like it would be a problem down the road.