Guild Wars 2

Apart from the very broken story mode with the most ant-climactic final boss in the history of gaming. (even though he was set up epic).

When you designed the explorable mode did you just assume that challenge meant an uninspired 4 paths of epic blandness and self-harming levels of elite zombies then chuck us 1 or 2 decent fights, and hope we would love to run this over and over for our shards?

Paths 2 and 4 are just ridiculous, no not difficulty wise, just time and filler….

Oh and, before the people who claim “its because your bad” … really not, and funnily enough I quite like Giganticus… infact he is one of the only bosses in this game I consider anywhere close to being “Explorable worthy”.

But seriously, any designers input on this torturous dungeon and what on kittens earth was you thinking?

I love the arah set for my guardian, but P 2 and 4 … and even 1 ….. are so torturous to run more than once, P3 is a decent pace but incredible unchallenging. (due to boss encounters being stupidly easy)

Tone down the ammount of filler crap, it simply isn’t fun or challenging for any demographic.

You keep using plural words which would indicate you’re speaking for you and several other people. Who’s this “us”? You’re speaking for yourself, yooooo

Most anti-climactic final boss in the HISTORY of gaming?

Exaggerate much?

I thought it was fine, not sure whats up with all the QQ on this. But yeah, since we hate our customers so much, let’s make the end of the campaign the worst we can, and then make the end boss the worst in all of gaming history!

mrauls.6519:

You keep using plural words which would indicate you’re speaking for you and several other people. Who’s this “us”? You’re speaking for yourself, yooooo

Do you have any actual input? as in, do you disagree with my analasis. my entire party just now through part 2 were like “…. well never again” they are just awful grindy and long paths.

Meanwhile you have all the easy mode people farming CoF for “dat epic fire armour” and getting it so easily in 1/10th of the time.

there should be some consistency.

Aoshi.4785:

Most anti-climactic final boss in the HISTORY of gaming?

Exaggerate much?

I thought it was fine, not sure whats up with all the QQ on this. But yeah, since we hate our customers so much, let’s make the end of the campaign the worst we can, and then make the end boss the worst in all of gaming history!

It was fine graphical, which you in your finite wisdom is referring to, either that or your standards for a final boss battle are incredible low. given Zaitan barely did anything.

I gotta agree, not only Arah, but most of the dungeon has long and very long ‘filler’ zones, meaning paths full of useless and boring mobs, which comes in waves and waves of endless zergs of mobs you have to kill in order to reach a not even challenging boss.

Now fractals, have some interesting dungeons where you can clearly see someone else designed them cause they are actually entertaing, for a few exceptions obviously (harpy map, really? were they drunk when they made it? or underwater boss, long and boring)

hharry.1967:

I gotta agree, not only Arah, but most of the dungeon has long and very long ‘filler’ zones, meaning paths full of useless and boring mobs, which comes in waves and waves of endless zergs of mobs you have to kill in order to reach a not even challenging boss.

Now fractals, have some interesting dungeons where you can clearly see someone else designed them cause they are actually entertaing, for a few exceptions obviously (harpy map, really? were they drunk when they made it? or underwater boss, long and boring)

I agree, alot of the fractals is well designed, bosses like the jellyfish are stupid though.

But it feels like all the content is just filler…. no thought put into it whatseover.

Birdy.4816:

mrauls.6519:

You keep using plural words which would indicate you’re speaking for you and several other people. Who’s this “us”? You’re speaking for yourself, yooooo

Do you have any actual input? as in, do you disagree with my analasis. my entire party just now through part 2 were like “…. well never again” they are just awful grindy and long paths.

Meanwhile you have all the easy mode people farming CoF for “dat epic fire armour” and getting it so easily in 1/10th of the time.

there should be some consistency.

I don’t see anything wrong with dungeons having different difficulties. It makes getting dungeon’s armor and weapon sets more worthwhile.

What it sounds like to me (notice how I’m speaking for myself), is that you’d like Arah to be toned down so you can more easily get the armor set you like so much :/

I like how you avoided what I said with that unrelated response though :P

Birdy.4816:

mrauls.6519:

You keep using plural words which would indicate you’re speaking for you and several other people. Who’s this “us”? You’re speaking for yourself, yooooo

Do you have any actual input? as in, do you disagree with my analasis. my entire party just now through part 2 were like “…. well never again” they are just awful grindy and long paths.

Meanwhile you have all the easy mode people farming CoF for “dat epic fire armour” and getting it so easily in 1/10th of the time.

there should be some consistency.

How much consistency should there be? What is wrong with having a dungeon that takes an hour and having a dungeon that takes 10 minutes?

I feel having a set of dungeon armor that is more painful to get than another set is very acceptable. I also feel we have multiple paths to choose from for exactly this reason. If you don’t like this path, do that path. If you want to get the bonus tokens for all paths, do all paths.

I’ve noticed you just complain a lot in your posts.

mrauls.6519:

I don’t see anything wrong with dungeons having different difficulties. It makes getting dungeon’s armor and weapon sets more worthwhile.

What it sounds like to me (notice how I’m speaking for myself), is that you’d like Arah to be toned down so you can more easily get the armor set you like so much :/

I like how you avoided what I said with that unrelated response though :P

+1 sir.

That would be Hrouda I believe, and he wants you to break your backs against Arah like waves upon jagged rocks.

Anakin.9765:

I feel having a set of dungeon armor that is more painful to get than another set is very acceptable. I also feel we have multiple paths to choose from for exactly this reason. If you don’t like this path, do that path. If you want to get the bonus tokens for all paths, do all paths.

I’ve noticed you just complain a lot in your posts.

I don’t see anything wrong with dungeons having different difficulties. It makes getting dungeon’s armor and weapon sets more worthwhile.

What it sounds like to me (notice how I’m speaking for myself), is that you’d like Arah to be toned down so you can more easily get the armor set you like so much :/

I like how you avoided what I said with that unrelated response though :P

+1 sir.

I don’t believe the OP was asking for the dungeon to be made easier. In fact he mentions it being boring, bland and torturous – but not challenging. Quite the opposite in fact.

I think any armour set being ‘painful’ to achieve due to bad dungeon design is unacceptable. Hold Anet to a higher standard and demand more engaging and challenging content rather than a drawn out grind which most of this dungeon is. That way Arah explorable armour will be truly worthwhile due it requiring more skill and not just a lot of free time and a high boredom threshhold.

Birdy.4816:

Aoshi.4785:

Most anti-climactic final boss in the HISTORY of gaming?

Exaggerate much?

I thought it was fine, not sure whats up with all the QQ on this. But yeah, since we hate our customers so much, let’s make the end of the campaign the worst we can, and then make the end boss the worst in all of gaming history!

It was fine graphical, which you in your finite wisdom is referring to, either that or your standards for a final boss battle are incredible low. given Zaitan barely did anything.

Where did I, in my finite wisdom, refer to anything graphical? Riddle me that, oh wizened one.

I am saying that it’s not worth the boo-hoo-hooing that everyone is giving it, and even if so, do you really think a change will be implemented? Nope.

I’ve beaten Demon’s Souls a few times, so I think I know about a good boss battle here and there ^__^

mrauls.6519:

You keep using plural words which would indicate you’re speaking for you and several other people. Who’s this “us”? You’re speaking for yourself, yooooo

Hes speaking for me too so plural works, totally agree OP…

I avoid it like the plague it is..actually i avoid all dungeons like a plague especially after the stupid way point nerf and dungeons not being toned down to match it…

I come to mmo’s to enjoy myself casually, not to play like i’m trying to climb Mt Everest every session….

I hope it’s not all doom and gloom for Arah as I want to start farming it to get some gear for my Necromancer.

ive tried path 2, 3 and 4 several times. always failed:( i want dat armor:(

Why does it seem Arah Explorable has the same vaunted difficulty people talk about similar to Duncan the Black in the old days? Remember that? And yet people got to a point where “runs” were organized which made it easy.

I also remember, way way back of all of five months ago (give or take) when people were saying Ascalonian Catacombs was beastly hard and needed to be toned down.

StormageddonBK.9842:

I hope it’s not all doom and gloom for Arah as I want to start farming it to get some gear for my Necromancer.

Do it with an experienced party. The first time I went in with a casual inexperienced group. Nobody had done it. We had all done SM, but that was very different. We wiped on the first mob in the first minute. Wiped on the first mob again and gave up. Also, Id recommend you farm gear for your Necro first. I know the Arah armor looks pretty good on a Necro, but dont go in with non exotics unless you like dieing.

Dante.1508:

mrauls.6519:

You keep using plural words which would indicate you’re speaking for you and several other people. Who’s this “us”? You’re speaking for yourself, yooooo

Hes speaking for me too so plural works, totally agree OP…

I avoid it like the plague it is..actually i avoid all dungeons like a plague especially after the stupid way point nerf and dungeons not being toned down to match it…

I come to mmo’s to enjoy myself casually, not to play like i’m trying to climb Mt Everest every session….

So what you’re asking is for dungeons to be super easy so you can clear them in 10 min?

Personally, I like the dungeon WP nerf. Prior to the nerf i felt dungeons to be way too easy and just something I did to pass the time. With the nerf I feel that it makes dungeons harder and more challenging without having to alter anything else in the dungeon, which I enjoy. Also the dungeon WP nerf made it similar to fractals where you can’t teleport till all members are dead, or now when no one is in combat and/or all members are dead.

On topic with the OP, I also agree that when it came time to fight Zhaitan (story mode), I was rather disappointed. However for the explore paths, when I run them, granted like others I find them easy, they are still challenging enough for those that don’t know the methods or techniques for fighting the bosses, and most of the mobs (filler) can be avoided by just running past them.

For me the only imbalanced are Simin (path 4) and the Ooze (path 1), they are just… argh… and Simin requires only a full hyper mega DPS party, the strategy part plays only 0.5% on this fight.

PS.: I do have ‘Dungeon Master’, got it after finishing p4 with 4 warriors.

Valento.9852:

…and Simin requires only a full hyper mega DPS party, the strategy part plays only 0.5% on this fight.

That is hilarious. I needed some comedy to brighten up my week, thank you.
I’d say Simin is probably the easiest boss in the path, but Melandru’s Priest & the End Boss of the path are both afk autoattack encounters. So I’d say eating a sandwich & watching the latest Game Grumps is a tad easier than Simin is. You can either DPS her like a bunch of uncoordinated zerkers, or actually pay attention to the mechanics of the fight and work together flawlessly. I’d wager that this encounter can be done with white equipment.
.
Anyways, onto the topic… Arah is the final dungeon of the game, I feel that’s enough excuse to be challenging, long, and tedious. As mentioned somewhere above, if you’re jealous of CoF getting done in 10 mins, go do that dungeon instead. It’s just armor skins and the challenge of Arah separates the people who truly want it with the people who could care less about the skin. Its not supposed to be a place that caters to the players.

Most of the boss-type encounters are much better designed than a lot of stuff in the game. I’d have to agree that Zhaitan’s battle is almost as much of a joke as the quote above my post. Mechanically, pressing skill 2 until you win is shockingly bad; Maybe he could take a swipe at the ship once in a while & force you to realign your cannon or something? I’m sure if they spent 2 minutes thinking of alternate ways, Zhaitan would be infinitely better.

All of the filler Risen can be dealt with or skipped, that’s up to your party really. I feel like there needs to be more Risen, what with this being the biggest baddest dungeon out there… It just feels wrong with the few that are in there now.

tl;dr- Arah’s boss encounters are mostly all fun. It’s not supposed to be a friendly happy place, it’s supposed to be a hard obstacle to overcome that doesn’t cater to anyone-be it by encounters or length.

I wont be going back into Arah. That is just not “fun”.

The longer I play this game, the shorter my attention span gets. More 10 minutes dungeons please.

That’s funny, my group cleared Arah2 and 3 in less than an hour and finally scored a 2:45 minute Lupus kill last night.

It’s not half as hard as you make it out to be.

You can join my hardcore runs (EU). Death/exploit = kick.

I don’t understand the constant zig zagging of boss difficulty.

You have bosses that are very easy to take down and others like Lupi which are fairly difficult if you don’t have a competent group.

P3 you have the two undead bosses which are more about having the “tank” avoid being smashed. It’s not too hard.

Second boss just stands there and doesn’t do anything special. You can kill him with two people easy.

Then Lupi which is probably one of the hardest bosses in the dungeon. (Dwayna isn’t hard, just a dumb DPS check.)

Then Wraithlord which is a free win after you do the P1 rings.

//

P1 is probably one of the hardest ones. Insanely annoying trash to skip and that Ooze boss makes me want to punch a baby because of that dumb Tar mechanic.