Guild Wars 2

Apparently, if I want to see how the story in this game goes, I’ll need to become an elite gamer. So I’ll need a guild group with vent or teamspeak, scheduled raid times, twitch gaming skills, and absolute perfect knowledge and awareness of all abilities in the game. Lets not forget to have level and gear that is 10 levels higher than the dungeons at minimum.

Here’s my experience with AC story mode. I’ve attempted it 8 times now with PUG on 2 different characters. None have gone through the whole experience. Each time I joined had at least 1 level 50 and 1 level 40. Some groups were 3 level 50s.

The Engineer: Level 30 – 40

Gear stats in order: Healing Power, Toughness, Power, Vitality

Abilities:
Elixir Gun
Radiation field
Net or Thumper turret

Experience: As a support character I do an excellent job of keeping the ranged characters healed from splash damage. Enemies are constantly debuffed with poisons and weakness.

However, the tanks of the group have it rough and even with my layered regen and AE heal on them they will eventually go down if they are holding aggro from more than 1 mob.

The problems arise when:
1. I’m instantly killed by multiple AE. Most of the time I can’t dodge them all. Or I don’t see them coming because there are too many similar effects floating around.

2. I get aggro. Once I have aggro I must kite by using my elixir gun dodge ability and perform my own dodges. In between maneuvers I let the enemy hit me once (which drops me by half life) then continue kiting while I regen health. Sadly I am now unable to focus on healing my team and more on myself. So I’ll either die by getting stuck on a wall or my team dies and I get mass nuked by the remaining mobs.

3. Thumper turret does not pull aggro. In the open world, dropping a pet or turret near an enemies would instantly aggro them. In dungeons, enemies just ignore puts completely.

Conclusion as Engineer? I cannot support my team once I have aggro and I cannot shake the aggro. With all that toughness and healing power I can’t be a good enough healer; nor can I take damage at all.

The Guardian: Level 33

Gear stats in order: Toughness, Healing, Vitality, Power

Abilities:
Mace and Shield or Mace and Focus
Scepter and Focus for ranged combat

Hold the Line (always present in my list)
Retreat (always present in my list)
Healing Dome (Sanctuary I think)
Stand your ground
Save Yourselves

Experience: I can actually tank………..1 mob. I die in about 4 hits if I do nothing but attack. however, I can negate damage about 4 times easily and supply 2 to my team. So this allows me to successfully tank a mob for as long as I want.

the problems arise when:

1. 2 mobs aggro me. I die in about 10 seconds or less with no chance to fight for survival. It is literally instant death.

2. I can’t see akittenthing except the thing I’m attacking. It’s a closed space, so the camera is close. I’m typcially hit by all Ae effects once before I notice them and move. AE effects blast through my shields with ease. The #5 skill ont he focus blocks 3 attacks. It will drop instantly in most situation I use it. That means I’m getting hit 3 times at once in many occasions.

3. I can’t hold the aggro I have. If the mob leaves to attack someone else, there is nothinng I can do. I’ve tried chasing it down and blocking its path but I am typcially knocked on mykitten or can’t keep up. My buffs do nothing to help the other players survive in this case. My barriers and knockbacks only keep the enemy at bay for 1 second.

4. When a player is down, they stay down. I can rez, but the mob will just hit them right back down again till they are completely dead. Dome of healing is not large enough for my big Charrkitten to fit in there and rez a player. The mobs hit through it and still hit me or the person I’m trying to protect.

Conclusion: Guardian is uneffective as support or tank in situations where more than 1 enemy is present. No aggro control system. Not enough hardiness to tnak multiple targets. Spell effects are sloppy in dungeons and do not prep players for the attacks about to happen. All I see are more red circles and more enemies with glowy effects around them that don’t accuratly reflect when they are going to trigger their attacks.

Now if I recall at around 14:10 of the dungeon video Colin said that all content including dungeons are made for everyone. Well, I am a 30 year old male who has played a large amount of MMOs in the past. I am not a twitch gamer, I am average. I’m as average as they come. I am only support in all games I play.

I’ve successfully played LoL, WoW, Aion, Rift, Warhammer Online, Star Wars TOR, GW1, and DAOC. All of which I played support successfully and made a difference. In all of these games I could play the first dungeon of the series with ease and learn the ropes easily. In all of these games I could see when a boss would do a big attack by either text warning or clear visuals. If visuals were not present, then the apropriate classes were able to buffer the damage of said special attacks.

Yet, somehow, in this game I am unable to pass the first dungeon and see the story content. This is supposed to be for everyone?

prior to the CM ‘buffs’, AC was about 10x harder than CM (the 40 instance). I don’t know how it is now. In truth, most of it is fairly challenging (especially for new players), but one encounter in particular (the twins) is quite a bit overtuned. Just imo.

You really want a group that knows their class. Every time I’ve ran with HS spamming thieves or full signet warriors we’ve had a hard time. I’ve done AC on a guardian and a necro myself, and there’s many different ways to help your team depending on what the team comp is. If everyone spends a little time at start figuring out each other’s strengths/weaknesses, the whole run will go a lot smoother. For any instance you want to bring at least 1 cc-heavy profession (mesmer, necro, engi), and at least 1 support-heavy profession (guardian, ele, engi).

for ac, you also wanna make sure you kill eles and rangers first, or they’ll mess you up. Have someone on full time cripple/knockdown duty for the melee mobs. Abuse condition removal skills in the trap area (your anti missile shield and aegis/blocks are amazing for that area too). And abuse boulders, they’re amazing for that place. (Essentially the key to beating twins is chain boulders on them).

PS. If you want to try it again or questions, I’m on Jade Quarry, play most evenings/ weekends, feel free to PM me.

Urrelles it breaks down like this you either have had some realllllllllllly bad groups, or you are telling lies.

SM are not hard, but may require reading. Like…check what some mobs do under their names. I had a friend keep dying to one in CM Expo when he failed to read “Does more damage to moving targets”, then said oh, lol.

There’s also just kill priorities and knowing your limits/abilities. You shouldn’t go into dungeons with a “this will be easy” attitude, but it’s more of a relative factor – aka, dungeons are more challenging than any other things in the game, save for some events that require some coordination or tactics, depending on player numbers.

Gies.3824:

Urrelles it breaks down like this you either have had some realllllllllllly bad groups, or you are telling lies.

This is the kind of answer that just damages the community and doesn’t help in any way. You are more than welcome to disagree with the OP – but do so with valid points and suggestions.

I for one, am in full agreement with the OP. I have my own post floating around these forums from a few days ago, giving feedback on story mode dungeons.

Daboris.6730:

SM are not hard, but may require reading. Like…check what some mobs do under their names. I had a friend keep dying to one in CM Expo when he failed to read “Does more damage to moving targets”, then said oh, lol.

There’s also just kill priorities and knowing your limits/abilities. You shouldn’t go into dungeons with a “this will be easy” attitude, but it’s more of a relative factor – aka, dungeons are more challenging than any other things in the game, save for some events that require some coordination or tactics, depending on player numbers.

The bolded section above is just your opinion – just to be clear.

Also – it is rather insulting that your advice for players like myself and the OP is “read”. I am well aware of the descriptions under the mob names.

Dungeons are more than welcome to be challenging – in explorable format. What I ask is that story mode by completable by PuG’s with minimal deaths even with most tactics aren’t followed – because in PuG’s, they may not be.

I’m with the Urrelles. There is simply no reason story mode dungeons should be this hard.

It’s a STORY MODE dungeon. It SHOULD be easy enough that you can take your bad friend or pug with you and totally smoke it. At level 80 in full exotic gear ALL story mode dungeons should be easy to moderate difficulty without a huge learning curve. The fact that are so hard with so little reward is unacceptable in regards to everything ANET has advertised prior to launch.

Story mode is for the story…

Fluffycalico.2715:

Story mode is for the story…

Exactly – and currently, it doesn’t work this way. So far for me, story mode has been for learning to rapidly waypoint resurrect and run back 10 times to defeat each boss.

You should not drop by half health in AC story mode, I did it in beta with an engineer, and I was able to survive more than two hits (supply crate is a wonderful panic button).

AC story mode is pretty insane. I ran it with 3 other friends and one random, but the four of us were on Skype and just party chatted the other guy to keep him in the loop. We didn’t party wipe (still had quite a few individual deaths) but we were also all lvl 40+ (so geared above lvl 35) and one of us had already done the story before. I still find AC’s story mode to be the hardest one I’ve done out of 3 so far (AC, CM, and SE).

Have you tried TA? I find it quite a bit worse for the most part.

I wouldn’t say it’s too difficult. I ran AC story mode last night PUG, and it was all of our first time ever running the dungeon and we completed it. Yes, we died more times then we wanted, but after we got it down. Focus firing, killing target A before target B, it was easy. The boss fights were even easier. My group consisted of Ranger, Guardian, Warrior, Thief, and Engineer.

Disconnected.9253:

but one encounter in particular (the twins) is quite a bit overtuned. Just imo.

Twincest.

If you look at the twins’ descriptions, they are more powerful when they are near each other. This corresponds, iirc, to the two AoE circles on the ground. When they overlap, they’re more powerful. The solution is to have one or two people on one twin while the others are on the other one and draw them away from each other. This is possible. As soon as one twin is killed the encounter becomes really easy. Need to dodge a lot though.

I did AC story mode on monday and it wasn’t hard at all. I was an ele (support) and was with two of my friends (thief and engi, both traited for damage) and we picked up a pug necro and guardian. It was me and my two friends first time setting foot in a dungeon, we did the whole thing with very little communication outside of “don’t res him, i’m using my glyph” and we only ended up wiping once due to the lovers not actually moving when using pushbacks/rocks. My friends and I are very casual players only able to play maybe once or twice a week, I was around level 50 and everyone else was 30-35.

In my opinion the challenge was perfect. It was difficult but we never once needed to graveyard rush and it really helped us learn how to truly play our characters in the dungeon environment. I can’t say anything about the other dungeon story modes, but AC was just fine and probably my favorite thing I’ve experienced in game so far.

AC isn’t too bad apart from a few ridiculously hard pulls for a SM mode (Elementalists in a small space with mesmer or monk support are nasty stuff especially on the odd three pull). Haven’t tried CM recently, but it was a cakewalk.

TA however is much sterner stuff. Almost every trash pull in there can wipe you if you aren’t being very careful; the Nightmare Knights in particular being beasts who can easily solo a party on their own if even one party member got caught without stability.

Also, the second proper boss in there (the illusion knight) seemed overtuned and nigh impossible if you didn’t have the right classes or weapon combinations.

dardor.9508:

If you look at the twins’ descriptions, they are more powerful when they are near each other. This corresponds, iirc, to the two AoE circles on the ground. When they overlap, they’re more powerful. The solution is to have one or two people on one twin while the others are on the other one and draw them away from each other. This is possible. As soon as one twin is killed the encounter becomes really easy. Need to dodge a lot though.

I’m aware of the fight mechanics
even if you’re doing this, splash aoe, damage from the guy’s illusions and her stormbolts (which you can’t always dodge) all add up to quite a bit of damage still.
It’s fully doable when you have 2 people coordinating a knockdown chain on each boss while popping regen in between with 1 floater person doing either dmg, regen, cc or cleanses, but having people go down makes the fight exponentially more difficult.

And while I understand the need for knockdown mechanics… rangers shouldn’t be able to spam it. The 3 ranger pull is one of the most annoying in the whole instance.

Story mode is EZ mode. None of my groups have ever failed to do story mode. And I’m not an elite gamer by any stretch of the imagination – we do fail explorer mode quite a bit. Story mode is not hard at all. Maybe its for the 80% and the bottom 20% who don’t play video games often or don’t know the mechanics can’t do story mode but to say its 1% or 2% is just flat out wrong.

Alex.9432:

Story mode is EZ mode. None of my groups have ever failed to do story mode. And I’m not an elite gamer by any stretch of the imagination – we do fail explorer mode quite a bit. Story mode is not hard at all. Maybe its for the 80% and the bottom 20% who don’t play video games often or don’t know the mechanics can’t do story mode but to say its 1% or 2% is just flat out wrong.

It’s not about failing, most groups can at least brute force it.

It’s more about reward vs challenge; you end up getting one good piece of gear (the head piece) for a ridiculous cost in repairs in the harder story modes (and gold doesn’t come easy in this game). After that, all the Story Modes are good for are the experience on completion and the money from vendoring the gear.

Story mode drops are generally garbage compared to any other dungeons in any mmo I’ve played due to a lack of fixed loot tables and they are still as hard or harder than the average heroic from that game.

NOTE: The challenge may all change when people have learned how to beat bosses and hard pulls consistantly; the loot will still suck though.

Story modes are at the right difficulty, end of discussion.

I have completed all of the story modes, the only one that might be a bit too hard is Sorrows embrace (Kulus fire golem).

The issue is really a learn 2 play issue, the story dungeons are really easy. What problems were you wiping at???

I think the problem is your mindset, you are looking at a game thinking you can just run in and faceroll each group. Whatever happened to taking your time, making proper pulls, and working as a team? Next time when you go into a dungeon have a specific person pull, have your group coordinate, and play as a team. Guarantee you beat it flawlessly.

Phillukin.3708:

Story modes are at the right difficulty, end of discussion.

I have completed all of the story modes, the only one that might be a bit too hard is Sorrows embrace (Kulus fire golem).

The issue is really a learn 2 play issue, the story dungeons are really easy. What problems were you wiping at???

I think the problem is your mindset, you are looking at a game thinking you can just run in and faceroll each group. Whatever happened to taking your time, making proper pulls, and working as a team? Next time when you go into a dungeon have a specific person pull, have your group coordinate, and play as a team. Guarantee you beat it flawlessly.

Firstly, it is your opinion that they are at the right difficulty, and does by no mean end the discussion.

Secondly – you state:

“Whatever happened to taking your time, making proper pulls, and working as a team?”

Last I checked – this game implemented a multi-tiered difficulty system through the use of explorable mode dungeons. Proper pulling and extravagant team work can be used there.

If you want that kind of a challenge – hit those up. How does it hurt the more hard-core gaming community if story modes are tuned for those of us that really don’t even WANT to learn the nuances of group combat – but rather want to see the story and have fun blowing enemies up with our less-than-competent friends?

Phillukin.3708:

Story modes are at the right difficulty, end of discussion.

I have completed all of the story modes, the only one that might be a bit too hard is Sorrows embrace (Kulus fire golem).

The issue is really a learn 2 play issue, the story dungeons are really easy. What problems were you wiping at???

I think the problem is your mindset, you are looking at a game thinking you can just run in and faceroll each group. Whatever happened to taking your time, making proper pulls, and working as a team? Next time when you go into a dungeon have a specific person pull, have your group coordinate, and play as a team. Guarantee you beat it flawlessly.

“Whatever happened to taking your time, making proper pulls, and working as a team?”

Let me guess, you roll with a group of friends for every dungeon?

Try doing this in a PUG where half the group doesn’t have competitive ranged weapons, members won’t equip helpful/survival utilities even when asked, members waste their dodge roll or don’t notice red circles, members sit right back on pulls and take too long to lockdown trash, members who ignore advice and ragequit or flame when criticised. I could go on.

Not all PUGs are this bad but quite a few are.

First time I ran AC it kicked mykitten We didn’t even get to Nente. There was no co-ordination.

I understand what you mean about story mode being for the story, but the argument for making story mode easier is that you essentially can’t play your class properly. I apologise for saying that, but that is all I’m getting out of OP is just that.

Explorable is already for the elite-chasers. I sit somewhere in the middle of casual and hardcore, as I’m sure a great deal of us do. Story mode is too easy, explorable is too hard (possibly, but as I’ve not done any explorable let’s say for the sake of argument it’s beyond me as a player). What now?

“HEY, Anet! Make explorable easier!”

Why do people find it so easy to whine and yet so difficult to work together as a team? I don’t have numerous contacts to call upon whenever I want to do a dungeon, so I rely on picking up people who want to do it and my experiences have been overwhelmingly positive.

Why, you might ask? Simply because I’m willing to invest and take charge. A dungeon in this game isn’t something to be done lightly, so don’t rush into it expecting to be finished in ten minutes. Instead of wasting time hoping for the best, plan out battles before you engage in them. Learn from your mistakes and more importantly keep your team informed.

I’ve turned many a ‘terrible group’ into a successful run using the above logic. Sadly, it seems as if there’s a lot of people who’d rather rant and complain than improve on their tactics and skills.

They all become much easier when you reach 80 and have unlocked all your skills etc. If you are struggling now come back at 80. I’m not saying this is a good solution but it seems they are tuned to still be challenging for lvl 80 players which makes them quite challenging for those who are not 80.
The down tuning of characters doesn’t quite work as intended especially for regular content which is face roll at 80, so I’d guess they had to tune up the dungeons a little to avoid farming.

Garenthal.1480:

Why do people find it so easy to whine and yet so difficult to work together as a team? I don’t have numerous contacts to call upon whenever I want to do a dungeon, so I rely on picking up people who want to do it and my experiences have been overwhelmingly positive.

Why, you might ask? Simply because I’m willing to invest and take charge. A dungeon in this game isn’t something to be done lightly, so don’t rush into it expecting to be finished in ten minutes. Instead of wasting time hoping for the best, plan out battles before you engage in them. Learn from your mistakes and more importantly keep your team informed.

I’ve turned many a ‘terrible group’ into a successful run using the above logic. Sadly, it seems as if there’s a lot of people who’d rather rant and complain than improve on their tactics and skills.

I don’t mind the difficulty and most are fairly easy once you have the hang of the mechanics.

It’s just there’s no reason for anyone to run a story mode past the first time and the first time is when you won’t know any of the mechanics and will likely die a lot in some SM, especially if most of the party share this characteristic.

Leithian.3109:

They all become much easier when you reach 80 and have unlocked all your skills etc. If you are struggling now come back at 80. I’m not saying this is a good solution but it seems they are tuned to still be challenging for lvl 80 players which makes them quite challenging for those who are not 80.
The down tuning of characters doesn’t quite work as intended especially for regular content which is face roll at 80, so I’d guess they had to tune up the dungeons a little to avoid farming.

If I don’t care about the angsty adventures of Destiny’s Child, why would I ever run a Story Mode dungeon at level 80?

What people don’t seem to get is that this game requires you to do is have some stability/defensive skills on your utility slots, HENCE THE NAME, “Utility Slots”. I’ve been through many parties for AC and every time I tell someone to switch their skills to one of the 5 defensive skills they get, they give me an awesome, “F**K You” to me when all I did was give them advice since they were complaining about knockdowns and leap bounds. Everyone on your team can’t just stack DPS and expect to clear the dungeon. Everyone needs to be able to defend themselves. The classes are built so you can do just that.

Also, I’ve been working on a guardian. I am mace and shield and I cleared AC story mode with no problem. I’ve used defensive utilities and timed them along with my dodges.

+1 to the guy below me. This is a totally different style of gameplay, not the traditional that everyone can’t seem to let go.

The main problem here is that you’re trying to keep people alive. There is no tank. There is no healer. There is no aggro, taunts, threat, or any of that. Everyone is responsible for their own life. If you want to play support, that means you buff your allies and send a little regen their way. You can not heal them through anything. Don’t even try. If they don’t move, that’s their ownkittenfault. You have to drop the mindset that someone is going to keep mobs off you. They can’t. That’s when you utilize your cc and conditions to survive.

If you missed out on the part where they took out the traditional trinity, you should probably go watch their manifesto video where they say there are no tanks or healers.

In place of these there are three roles that should be filled:

Control (utilize dazes, stuns, blinds, cripple, immobilize, knockdowns, causing weakness, chill, fear)

Support ( Spreading boons, dropping regeneration fields, removing conditions, causing vulnerability)

Damage ( stacking conditions and high damage output)

Another issue is probably that AC is the first dungeon. And dungeon play is so much more different than all the PvE content players had been doing before it. I know I never used dodge before AC unless I accidentally did a double tap on my keyboard. AC story mode (as well as WvW) basically taught me that “hey, dodge is here to save you, use it!” Most casual or newbie (not noob, just new) players do not have the concepts in mind necessary to complete a dungeon (even in story mode). That’s why it helps to have an experienced player walk them through it…but with the nerf to story mode rewards this is becoming less and less popular unless you have willing guildies or friends.

I’ve ran some of these dungeons already and I will tell you this, those dungeons can be/are stupid hard. I run with a set group of friends and we all beat these dungeons regardless but still, the reward for all this is the drive to have the tokens you get after each boss, exp mode that is. Story mode I agree should be a little easier for those who want to see the story, not farm the content.

However, I probably suggest asking what everyone in your group is specced for and maybe try to balance your group a little. One of my party members went all support and his heals and boons help us out SOOO much.

Honestly, I’m not gonna say much cause I’m about to log on Gw2. But the dungeons are fine the way they are, if you can’t handle them, then don’t do them, but don’t come crying on the forums about how hard they are in hope A-net will nerf them and ruin the content for the players that have what it takes to clear through them. My two friends quit the game cause of how hard story mode AC was, then after I cleared it with a pug, I told my friend it could be done and he came back to the game realizing now that it takes time, strategy and skill to overcome these dungeons, and that’s something other MMOs lack, which is why I quit WoW. Thank you Arena-Net, give us more!

dardor.9508:

Another issue is probably that AC is the first dungeon. And dungeon play is so much more different than all the PvE content players had been doing before it. I know I never used dodge before AC unless I accidentally did a double tap on my keyboard. AC story mode (as well as WvW) basically taught me that “hey, dodge is here to save you, use it!” Most casual or newbie (not noob, just new) players do not have the concepts in mind necessary to complete a dungeon (even in story mode). That’s why it helps to have an experienced player walk them through it…but with the nerf to story mode rewards this is becoming less and less popular unless you have willing guildies or friends.

you’ve never dodge before AC? what do you play, warrior or guardian?

also it is possible that a character can do more than just ‘cc’ or just ‘support’

you can mix and match (not best of all, but a little of each is sometimes enough).
Ideally, everyone has at least a decent self heal, a cc, and maybe a group buff or debuff to bring. Some professions are better at some of those than others, try to get an idea of what a ‘good mix’ is.

Back to the topic: SM SHOULD be easy… it’s for ‘story’. If I want to faceplant my keyboard, I’ll run EM.

Personally, I don’t think the story mode dungeons I ran through were hard at all, sure we had one or two wipes but that was nothing. We did AC twice and CM once (after the patch).

Our set up:
AC run one: Warrior, Mesmer, Engineer, Elementalist, Necromancer.
AC run two: Warrior, Warrior, Engineer then a Ranger for the 4-man.
CM: Warrior, Warrior, Engineer, Ranger, Guardian.

No idea what people’s traits were apart from me being a support/damage Engineer.

The first AC run our Mesmer was only level 27, and in CM one Warrior was only 35. The second time in AC we had 2 dc’s after the first boss, yet we managed to 3-man the Ranger boss and 4-man the rest, (nearly 3-manning the lovers).

We cleared all runs without much trouble and had fun. We didn’t use vent or anything. However some of us had played together before with the rest being pugs. I suppose it might be different in a full pug group.

Again, I really don’t think story mode (from what I have done) are as hard as people are making out. And no, we aren’t elite players or anything like that, most of us just spend a few hours on the game a day/week. In my opinion, people just need to get used to the combat style of the game first, as it is very different from other mmo’s.

You have to have had some pretty horrid groups to not be able to do Story Mode.

Sure, if the pug is sub-par, you will probably chain-die your way through the instance, but I have never been in a group that couldn’t eventually complete it.

Just make sure before you enter the instance that no one in your party is a whiner liable to give up if they die a few times. The only thing I can see preventing a full run in even the most terrible of groups are the people who rage-quit and leave you doing it with 3 people.

Keep in mind that the Personal Story isn’t exactly a walk in the park either (for cloth classes at least).

The dungeons are about the same difficulty. One thing that could make it more managable is something like: “Instead of 2 mobs with a 100 health each, we place 4 mobs with 50 health.” That way, getting some down and thus getting at least some progress would be make things less tedious to go through on the first runs.

I’ve only done AC once, died a few times, but finished the dungeon no problem.

Got to love how almost every post against can be summed as “L2P”
Its story mode dungeon, let people who don’t feel like spending hours grinding out dungeon mechanics and practicing it because they don’t have the same super twitch reflexes as you see their stories. Not like they get tokens out of it so you can continue prancing around in your exotic dungeon gear that the 99~98% you seem to hate don’t care about anyway.

Also, the dungeons are currently…. very unbalanced. Of all the story/explorable mode dungeons I’ve, aside from the odd boss here and there, I fear the random “trash” mobs way more…. since they love to go “hey that’s all target that squishy ele for no reason and continue pummeling him down to pulp while ignoring everyone else”….“oh he dodged the first few attacks, reflected some and slowed us a bit? no matter, we got tons more aoes/ranged attacks that have no apparent cooldown!” -_-

A level 30 story mode dungeon that’s basically most player’s introduction to dungeons for this game should not be requiring players to respec or seek out an ideal group for completion. It should be easing players into the content and style of dungeons in this game. It fails completely in that area. You may learn how to play dungeons through it, but it does it by beating you over the head.

The first time I ran AC my group finished it, but we did so after multiple wipes. And overall the experience felt frustrating and tedious. Rather than leave me feeling like “well that was fun, now I’d love to try the real challenge in explorable mode”, it left me thinking that if this is supposed to be the “easier” version I will likely never ever desire to play an Explorable dungeon in this game. I really can’t imagine that’s the type of user experience they want new players to have…

All you need in Story mode is perseverance. That’s all. Your pug can be the worst group in the world, if they keep trying, they’ll finish it eventually.

That’s not too hard imho. and definately not only for 1-2%. Yes, they can’t be facerolled, but they only require a minimum of communication and keeping your eyes open, and you can finish them.

Twaddlefish.6537:

First time I ran AC it kicked mykitten We didn’t even get to Nente. There was no co-ordination.

I understand what you mean about story mode being for the story, but the argument for making story mode easier is that you essentially can’t play your class properly. I apologise for saying that, but that is all I’m getting out of OP is just that.

Ah my favorite comment. there one where you’re told you suck without actually stating why you suck. I just spent 15 minutes writing out my stat build, abilities, level, and tactics and this is all the feedback I get on average.

So half the people say its easy the other half say its hard.

One thing I do notice. Most of the people claiming these dungeons are easy typically state grouping with friends, or being over leveled, or having some form of voice chat.

I haven’t seen one comment on here where a person said. “I joined a PUG of all lvl 35s and I beat story mode with minimal deaths!”

Has anyone here beat the dungeon within the level that the dungeon is supposed to be played. That means level 35ish, with 10 point trait skills, 35ish gear, and other similar players in your team, (preferably a PUG), minimal deaths (10 or less)? Anyone?

You would have to force me with some threat to my physical wellbeing or family to make me want to do AC story mode again.

I ran it at 35, we would have probably had about 20-30 deaths in the instance, also a lot of just gy zerging (cool mechanic guys) and the only strategy in the high hp trash pulls is to just focus fire one target down and hope you dont get unlucky and get hit by one of their hardcore shots.

The problem with every group that fails these dungeons is that they try to play this game like every other MMO.
As of right now I have a group of 4 friends that I do dungeons with. I met them in AC story when we were all level 30 to 35 and we did AC story with moderate difficulty. From then on we enjoyed doing blind runs of dungeons and now doing Explorables.
Inbetween these runs I would do pug groups with others to try to see how the community is doing, and my thoughts are is that it is horrible.
For example, in one group I had a ranger that would stand still in one spot and die to mobs if he pulled aggro. He would constantly complain that he shouldn’t be pulling aggro and that the game was too hard. After multiple deaths and reaching the end he finally learned to dodge and SOMETIMES revive downed allies. He proceeded to hate the dungeon and complain about how there was no tank to hold aggro so he could do damage.
These traits are fairly consistent throughout the 20 or so pugs I have done and within most of the posts of the people that cannot do these dungeons on the forums.
This game is not a tank and spank game. You cannot stand still, you cannot tank multiple mobs and keep aggro off of allies, and you cannot stand still and expect to not die.
I am going to be brutally harsh and basically just tell you if you cannot do a dungeon you OR your team sucks. Am I saying you cannot get better? no. I am saying you are used to other MMOs and are trying to play this game like those MMOs when this game is not those other MMOs.
Out of those about 20 pugs only 1 of them failed because someone left, and all of the players got BETTER when they listened and stopped trying to play it like WoW.
These dungeons are simple, they do not need to be ruined because the majority of players don’t bother to learn the mechanics of the game.
It baffles me that people will buy and play a game advertised as removing the trinity, AND THEN try to play the game like it has one. Then when they fail miserably, petition on the forums to have the dungeons made easier.
And don’t try to tell me oh story mode should be extremely easy, explorer mode is there for the elite.
We have threads going on now where people want the explorable dungeons to be easier so that EVERYONE can do them.
This is just pure laziness and non willingness to learn this game.
If you can’t learn and teach others how to play properly you don’t deserve to beat the content.
I am tired of mass amounts of people ruining games because they want everything handed to them.
What kind of reward is there if you buy a game and everything you do is just given to you? you give up within a week and stop playing because there is no goal or challenge.

Ennarian.4620:

The main problem here is that you’re trying to keep people alive. There is no tank. There is no healer. There is no aggro, taunts, threat, or any of that. Everyone is responsible for their own life. If you want to play support, that means you buff your allies and send a little regen their way. You can not heal them through anything. Don’t even try. If they don’t move, that’s their ownkittenfault. You have to drop the mindset that someone is going to keep mobs off you. They can’t. That’s when you utilize your cc and conditions to survive.

If you missed out on the part where they took out the traditional trinity, you should probably go watch their manifesto video where they say there are no tanks or healers.

In place of these there are three roles that should be filled:

Control (utilize dazes, stuns, blinds, cripple, immobilize, knockdowns, causing weakness, chill, fear)

Support ( Spreading boons, dropping regeneration fields, removing conditions, causing vulnerability)

Damage ( stacking conditions and high damage output)

This is the biggest problem with the dungeons. This new playstyle is flawed in programmer execution. The mobs are perfectly programmed in a way that forces every man to fend for themselves. However, their stats and execution of special attacks is not. When a regular ol elite ranger suddenly has 3x the power and 10x the HP, you can’t simplly just say “Everyman for themselves on aggro.” Squishy people will die. You cannot make an effecting mage tank in this game. you can make a hardy mage but not one that can tank. Guardians and Warriors just do it better.

My engineer is setup to survive. I survive Structured PvP like a beast. I survive WvW well enough to save people around me and hurt my enemies. I survive open world PvE; soloing skill point bosses with easy and 3 manning champion encounters. But go into a dungeon and all those survival skills just don’t mean kitten. Because in the end, you can only run so long, while, healing and dishing out damage.

If 4 people on your team each have aggro and their all focusing on themselves then how the hell are you going to win the fight? Especially when each person is under the threat of dying within a few attacks if caught.

I would rather A Net drop the insane enemy stats and just give me more targets. Instead of 2 rangers with 10k HP and 900 attack power, I’d rather deal with 5 Rangers with 4k HP and 200 attack power.

Apparently the “for highly skilled and highly organized players” statement about dungeons is flying over a lot of peoples heads. For every person who says “I TRIED THIS WITH 4 RANDOMS THAT I PICKED UP OUTSIDE THE INSTANCE AND FAILED MISERABLY NERF NAO”, a kitten dies.

Another interesting trend I am seeing on these boards is that all the people who swear these dungeons are easy and for A Net not to change them are the ones farming explorable dungeons.

So, why defend keeping Story Mode the same? How does changing Story mode affect your Explore mode gameplay?

the reason these companies make forums is for feedback. right now these dungeons are under heavy fire by the community. If A Net was smart they would get the clue and adjust something. You can call us whiners, but feedback is feedback. People are posting their party makeups, builds, and tactics and stating that it is frustrating. That means A Net messed up.

I checked the WvW and PvP forums. Not much complaining there except on the part of the usual class balancing. not much complaining in the class forums either. But come here and 50% of the post state “I hate Story Mode dungeons!” This is an issue that needs fixing.

Urrelles.4018:

Another interesting trend I am seeing on these boards is that all the people who swear these dungeons are easy and for A Net not to change them are the ones farming explorable dungeons.

So, why defend keeping Story Mode the same? How does changing Story mode affect your Explore mode gameplay?

the reason these companies make forums is for feedback. right now these dungeons are under heavy fire by the community. If A Net was smart they would get the clue and adjust something. You can call us whiners, but feedback is feedback. People are posting their party makeups, builds, and tactics and stating that it is frustrating. That means A Net messed up.

I checked the WvW and PvP forums. Not much complaining there except on the part of the usual class balancing. not much complaining in the class forums either. But come here and 50% of the post state “I hate Story Mode dungeons!” This is an issue that needs fixing.

I like how you leave out the part where the majority of the whiners aren’t playing the game properly.
You went on a long laundry list of how you were trying to be a healer, tanks couldn’t aggro properly, and how you needed “proper” gear to do the dungeons.
This game isn’t set up like that and you are playing it with the wrong mindset.
That is why you are failing. Not because Anet messed up.
People complaining doesn’t change that.
It just shows that we have a large player base of people from other MMOs that don’t realize this game isn’t other MMOs.

Gies.3824:

Apparently the “for highly skilled and highly organized players” statement about dungeons is flying over a lot of peoples heads. For every person who says “I TRIED THIS WITH 4 RANDOMS THAT I PICKED UP OUTSIDE THE INSTANCE AND FAILED MISERABLY NERF NAO”, a kitten dies.

Watch the guild wars video about dungeons. Around 4 minutes they clearly state that dungeons are fore everyone. Not the few or the elite. Yet in one of the forum post 3 weeks later Colin is stating it is for the elite. So now Anet is either lying to their customers and falsely selling features to people, or they jacked up their dungeon system and need to fix it.