Guild Wars 2

Back in the day, me and my friends used to die ourselves naked in Ascalon story mode (especially at ralena and vassar).

Admittedly, we have slightly better gear now and probably a little more experience under our belts, but yesterday we three manned that dungeon without a single death in under an hour.

Am I underestimating our improvement or was dungeon difficulty nerfed? We also ran two explorable paths and couldn’t stop laughing at how easy it was compared to how we remembered them…

I want GW1 Underworld back..

People have become better players, and people have better gear. I can almost guarantee you are in at least full exotics now, and I am willing to bet you weren’t when you first tried the dungeon.

But even more importantly, this game has experienced pretty massive powercreep with elite specs. If you tried to do it with full core builds it would be slightly more difficult (not much though) since you wouldn’t have elite spec power creep. But even then, condis have steadily been power creeped as well, as well as new HoT stat sets that are more powerful than core sets that were available at launch

Some small nerfs happened ages ago. Other changes like the addition of breakbars were an indirect nerf to most dungeon bosses.
Although, I feel like the major difference is due to personal experience and the powercreep that happened over time. Being used to game mechanics makes a huge difference. And quite honestly, the elite specs certainly don’t make it any harder.

AC Story was nerfed hard during the AC revamp of, iirc, late January 2013.

They didnt become easier, but you have to remember that a few tools we have now didn’t exist when dungeons were first designed, specifically:

• break bars
• elite specializations
• ascended gear
• new mechanics such as torment/slow/alacrity/etc
• conditions stacking higher than 25

Dungeons weren’t redesigned or revisited after any of these – and each of these helped to make our characters that much stronger. Each by itself may not be a huge buff, but together they make a real difference.

Imo, that is the main reason dungeons feel so easy now.

The story dungeons are easier now that we have elite specs, however, the explorable ones still require a party.

Blaeys.3102:

They didnt become easier, but you have to remember that a few tools we have now didn’t exist when dungeons were first designed, specifically:

• break bars
• elite specializations
• ascended gear
• new mechanics such as torment/slow/alacrity/etc
• conditions stacking higher than 25

Dungeons weren’t redesigned or revisited after any of these – and each of these helped to make our characters that much stronger. Each by itself may not be a huge buff, but together they make a real difference.

Imo, that is the main reason dungeons feel so easy now.

/Agreed.

Basically, all of the above.

you are likely to be better geared now (especially if you have ascended). From what we heard, dungeons were balanced around rare equipment.
You quite possibly had lower levels then.
There was a massive powercreep tied to the elite specs.
There was a condition rework
There was a defiance rework (that’s a massive indirect nerf to bosses)

At the same time, there were some nerfs to the content:
At least one general (and significant) nerf to all dungeon bosses (tied to the disabling the waypointing while in battle option)
Several reworks of scaling system, that generally made level 80 characters stronger in below 80 level zones and instances.
And, also, specifically ascalonian catacombs story mode has been made easier.

We were lvl 80 in exotics back then, IIRC… at least in our 3 man runs. I did a 5 man around lvl 30 though, where the gear and lvl points might be it.

Honestly, I just miss running around in my underwear because I just spent all my money on something and desperately trying to get this dungeon boss down again and again…

I can somewhat get it for story mode, since that was really brutal for lvl 30s even in 5 mans back then, but being able to 2/3 man explorable paths so quickly without dying just takes away that sense of accomplishment from beating them.

I guess I’ll try to convince my friends to do nude runs with me and see if that brings the magic back… lol.

If you want to make the dungeons harder, run in full rares or worse gear (especially your weapon), and don’t use any elite specs. But even then general power creep will make the run much easier than it used to be.

You could even go farther and limit yourselves more by only using minor traits, or not allowing weapon/attunement/kit swaps in combat.

JTGuevara.9018:

The story dungeons are easier now that we have elite specs, however, the explorable ones still require a party.

Can i have your source on this?

otome.2673:

JTGuevara.9018:

The story dungeons are easier now that we have elite specs, however, the explorable ones still require a party.

Can i have your source on this?

I’d certainly have said “benefit from” a party, but it’s probably true enough for the forums.

otome.2673:

JTGuevara.9018:

The story dungeons are easier now that we have elite specs, however, the explorable ones still require a party.

Can i have your source on this?

Some of the paths actually require more than 1 person just to do the mechanics. The fights could all be soloed in all of the paths at this point, its just the mechanics that are there purely to check how many people you have in your party that prevents some paths from being soloed

I agree with what all these people said. I have just steamrolled through TA story mode with my Minion Master Power Reaper. I don’t complain though, I really enjoy soloing dungeons.

They didn’t became easier. The difference between now and then isn’t even E-spec or gear. The answer is that general mechanisms, professions mechanisms and dungeon mechanisms have been thoroughly explored and compiled to reach a point were dungeon feel less chalenging.

- Throught extensive use in different gameplay professions have been mastered.
- Throught experience the way player approach encounter have changed from a mess to complementary team comp looking for a minimum standard of boon shared.
- Throught countless dungeon run, each and every trick have been undisclosed and finally compiled into proper strategy.

A lot of dungeon path as well as dungeon story are soloable and that is the case since long before HoT appeared. It just require a good mastery of the game mechanisms and knowledge about the path itself.

Dadnir.5038:

They didn’t became easier. The difference between now and then isn’t even E-spec or gear. The answer is that general mechanisms, professions mechanisms and dungeon mechanisms have been thoroughly explored and compiled to reach a point were dungeon feel less chalenging.

Indeed, it’s mostly L2P. I would bet any time that experienced players can build a group without any elite spec and using green gear, and dungeons would still feel easier than what they used to.

NashEquilSeek.2801:

I agree with what all these people said. I have just steamrolled through TA story mode with my Minion Master Power Reaper. I don’t complain though, I really enjoy soloing dungeons.

I was very annoyed that I wouldn’t figure out a way around the birds mechanic in HotW story mode solo. Ruined my goal of just doing them all that way. I’ll come back to it some other time, I guess…

Puh-Puh-Powahhhhhhhhhhh

Creep.

So yes.