Guild Wars 2

I remember during those video interviews that the developers or designers mentioned that there were 2 modes in dungeons in this game.

1. Story Mode

2. Explorable Mode.

Story mode was meant for the story of Destiny’s Edge and would be easier.

Explorable mode was meant for players who want more challenging game plays.

Developers also mentioned to get rid of Holy Trinity. For once I thought finally a game that has spared a thought for non-dungeon casual players who would like to go in for the story and not get all turned upside down. The interview really kept me intrigue and excited. but when I PLAYED THE GAME, it wasn’t true.

REASONS below:

When my partner and I were level 40 plus when we started, we went into level 30 Catacombs and couldn’t even survive the first area.

Today, both of us at Level 80, having the Zhaitan Quest open to us, we decided to put a hold on Zhaitan and proceed back to Catacombs.

Bear in mind that we were in level 80 exotic gears and accessories having worked our way up to where we are. So with 2 level 80 full gear, we partied with a level 69 , level 40 and level 42 adventurers who happen to have the same goal.

When we went in to the Lovers stage, entire squad was annihilated. We try various strategies, separating them, switching kiting and attacks but to no avail. Final conclusion is, still we had to have a tanker good enough to absorb damage and healers to AOE heal and cannons to AOE damage.

IF ALL of us were level 30 going into a level 30 dungeon, I would accept the fact that we may not be good enough maybe due to inexperience, level, equipment. But 2 level 80 with Full Exotics and all others above level 30 as well? This is outrages.

I seriously don’t find any sense of where was the part where they say “Story Mode is meant to be easier for players”. So much for casual non-dungeon players to be able to explore and try out dungeons.

The first time I went when I was level 40, I detested the dungeons. Total Turn off. Today at level 80 I went in again, it further added that feeling once more.

Seriously, Developers/Design Team of Dungeon really needs to relook at STORY MODE for once.

Above is my feedback. Not Flaming, just sharing my experience and hoping developers of the dungeon team would keep their word that they announced in the video.

I completely agree.

The difficulty seems to be swinging all over the place, some story mode puts a lot of exploration modes to shame. If exploration mode is at the intended difficulty (which I don’t believe it is), then story mode is grossly overtuned.

Kevin.2176:

I completely agree.

The difficulty seems to be swinging all over the place, some story mode puts a lot of exploration modes to shame. If exploration mode is at the intended difficulty (which I don’t believe it is), then story mode is grossly overtuned.

Yeah. I am not sure if developers for the dungeon team actually get people to try it out live without guiding them. Usually in videos I see online, they made it so easy because there is a developer in the team.

They should get a team of normal players without any knowledge of the place, throw them in with normal own personal account and see how hard it is.

A lot of people finding difficulty with dungeons when they’re lower level don’t really adjust their specs and go in with gear that is subpar to their level and their leveling specs. Not only does wearing gear behind your level scale down worse than correct level, a viable solo leveling spec also does not always work out well in dungeons.

Dungeons are a group content, just bringing DPS is the most basic level of contribution one can do. My buddy’s Warrior utilizes regen banners and Shake It Off while I went for damage reduction through Protection, stability and wards on my Guardian. Our damage is far from sky high but our health bars never dip unless someone severely screws up.

Our personal DPS may not be high, but between my staff empower and blasting his fire fields, we can easily keep up 20-25 stacks of might for our whole team and as a result blaze through pretty much everything.

I find that dungeons are actually quite easy after you understand the mechanics and know how to build your character for a group setting. If everyone is alive, the group damage output is as a result always going to be higher than if you all went berserkers and died multiple times every pull.

It’s the same reason why most warriors run Signet of Rage for their elites but ones I remember to thank and plan to run with in the future always carry battle standard, they understand the importance of taking a slight hit in personal performance for the well being of the group.

Knowledge and preparation goes a long way in succeeding in dungeons, and I have yet to fail a story mode dungeon even when I was leveling up my first character. And that was before anyone knew anything about how the dungeons mechanics played out. It helps immensely if your group members can help you help them.

If you can’t complete AC story even after being fully decked as an 80, perhaps reevaluate before jumping the gun and crying nerf. Being casual =/= lack of skill, it just means you have less playtime to commit. You shouldn’t use that as an excuse as that attitude only holds you back.

The point (I believe) is to compare the difficulty of two modes laid out by Arena Net, not to assess the dungeon’s difficulty as a whole.

Exploration modes are generally not hard, like you said knowledge and preparation goes a long way in completing a dungeon. I have personally never failed a story mode, but this is not an indication of the inflated difficulty of story modes in comparison to its exploration counter parts.

When we went in to the Lovers stage, entire squad was annihilated. We try various strategies, separating them, switching kiting and attacks but to no avail. Final conclusion is, still we had to have a tanker good enough to absorb damage and healers to AOE heal and cannons to AOE damage.

I’ve done AC, CM, TA, SE, and Arah story mode with a group of friends, and I feel like the Lovers fight was the hardest boss in all of those dungeons. I think we did AC when we had ~lv60 gear, the rest with 80 exotics. We did eventually get past them though, I think the trick was to have one person use boulders to knocklock one of the bosses.

To offer a contrasting experience, we actually completed all of those story modes except TA with 4 people (that was the only story mode dungeon we were able to find a 5th person for…), so they seem doable to me. I would agree that they might be harder than advertised, though.

I’m gonna have to agree with the OP. I did try to do 2 of the story modes at around the recommended level. I got through them eventually but it certainly left a bad taste in my mouth. I suppose it comes down to one very simple point for me. Am I enjoying the time I am spending while in a dungeon. For me personally that answer would be “no”.

So I gave up on dungeons for like 30 levels after following the threads on these forums regarding them. Some folks said, “they are just way too easy” while others have stated that they needed to be tuned down. I suppose what wasn’t clear though was what level the people were going into the dungeons in comparison to what the suggested level was for the area. It left me wondering if the folks who stated things were way to easy were at max level and max traits going into a lower level area. I’m aware of the scaling but it certainly seems to make a difference going in at recommended level versus max level.

So trying to keep an open mind I went and tried to do CM explore at lvl 65. I don’t have the best gear but certainly better than what one would have at lvl 45 which it recommends. So after just completing I have to ask myself, do I feel like the time I spent in there was an enjoyable one. I can certainly say it wasn’t as bad a time compared to when I tried an explore path at lvl 45 or so. But if I were to have to give a definitive answer I suppose I would still be leading towards, “no.”

I don’t really care about obtaining gear from these dungeons. I just enjoy seeing content. I won’t re-state what many have said in these threads regarding what their experience has been with trash mobs health and boss fights and one or two shot kills. But they seemed to be rather right on after the experience I just had.

We did finish the dungeon eventually but it wasn’t an experience that left me wanting more. What I have stated is only my own personal “opinion”. Feel free to state that I just need to learn to play or am unskilled. That is completely fine. I can live with not being good at a video game. I suppose I just hope that if developers are looking at dungeons, they will have an answer for individuals like myself who love seeing content.

Thanks for taking the time to read this far. Feel free to flame me if it will make you feel better. Again only stating my opinion and personal experience.

I have compelted and ran lvl 25’s through ACS.

My general opinion is if you cant do the dungeon at the recommended level, you are just going to spend a more money repairing at max level.

ToadforTruth – be thankful that less than 1/4(dont quote me on that) of the game is that way. For people like me enjoy challenging content where we are not guaranteed a win just because we show up and press a few keys, this is all we have. and to call it challenging is being kind. Once you have beat it you essentially can not fail it barring teammate quality.

As soon as I get online im going to try talking a guild mate into 2manning the ACS.

It has been done with a lvl 80. But quite honestly I think it can be done with my lvl 60. Possibly lower but that would involve levelling another char and thats time I dont have xP.

I sometimes feel as if you “people who like things easy” are selfish pricks. 1-80 you guys dont have to break a sweat but 8 dungeons that are borderline challenging you want to make them “easy mode”. I personally wonder if it would have been any different if they didnt open the dungeons till lvl 80. I dont think so. I see so many lvl 80’s dying to things that shouldnt even have hit them. I suppose though if majority of our players are like that they should cater to them. Just like modern warfare.

I agree the lovers fight is weird. We tried the boulder trick, but sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I think something is just screwy in the boss fight…

well sometimes it doesnt knock them back

but even then there is no problem

just throw more rocks and they wont stand up. it just takes a dash of time.

I love challenging content, but story mode is not the place things should be challenging… First of all it is a road block to accessing exp mode, so most of the time you’re just grabbing who ever need story mode to get a group together to complete it. Casual PUGs are not the types of groups they should be throwing some of these bosses at. In exp mode, sure make it as hard as you want because that will likely be the runs I go in with friends or guildies.

The other thing is that it feels as if the developers created bosses designed for games that use a trinity and ironically they’re game has none. If you change the dynamics of combat for the players, you also need to change the way you develop the bosses…. you can not use a standard hate system that other games use when there is no tank to take the hate. I honestly think they need to completely scratch their idea of what boss fights should be like and develop them specifically to this battle system to make it actually enjoyable.

Right now, its not fun.

Yeah, agree its totally not fun. Not to mention the problem the 2 types of dungeon creates when searching for party members to join. This is especially tough in story mode.

I replied my opinion in another thread on this before:
Details here at this link: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Hard-to-find-people-to-do-Story-mode-for-dungeons-now

voidwater.2064:

When we went in to the Lovers stage, entire squad was annihilated. We try various strategies, separating them, switching kiting and attacks but to no avail. Final conclusion is, still we had to have a tanker good enough to absorb damage and healers to AOE heal and cannons to AOE damage.

I’ve done AC, CM, TA, SE, and Arah story mode with a group of friends, and I feel like the Lovers fight was the hardest boss in all of those dungeons. I think we did AC when we had ~lv60 gear, the rest with 80 exotics. We did eventually get past them though, I think the trick was to have one person use boulders to knocklock one of the bosses.

To offer a contrasting experience, we actually completed all of those story modes except TA with 4 people (that was the only story mode dungeon we were able to find a 5th person for…), so they seem doable to me. I would agree that they might be harder than advertised, though.

The lovers are easy if you keep chucking the boulders at them. It knocks them down and makes it so easy to burn them.

Agree totally OP. Some of the story modes are just ridiculous. I love the explorer modes unless it’s subject alpha ugh.

It’s not a question of whether they’re doable, but if they’re at the right difficulty level. Being story mode, the developers meant for these to be comparatively easy for all. They don’t have token rewards and there’s no real reason to rerun them, and the main reasons people are meant to run them are either to unlock explorable mode or see the story. I believe the developers said that story mode was supposed to be easily enough doable with any Pug while explorable was the real challenge. In contrast, I think a few of the story modes are just as hard, if not harder than their corresponding explorables. That shouldn’t be the case.

Whether you think dungeons need to be harder or not is irrelevant. We’re talking about story mode here – explorables can be made more difficult for all I care.