Hailsa!
I have been slowly but surely recovering from a nasty flu-like virus over the past 48 hours and, during that time, i had a LOT of time to revisit some lore, play the game, and watch some videos posted on YouTube. What i did notice,though, whilst watching and reading and playing, is how much of a distinct difference in difficulty that Core Tyria has to offer versus the Heart of Thorns maps, as well as the newly created Living world maps. Mind you, I understand why this is obvious… Heart of Thorns is considered “endgame” content, while Core Tyria (people call it “vanilla” for some reason) is a combination of slightly challenging content and what i would consider “training”. I also understand that there are, in fact, areas and events that are proven to be quite difficult and sometimes nigh impossible to solo in “core Tyria”, such as the world bosses, Current events, etc., but these moments are Meant for group participation…. in Other words, they are designed so that multiple players will be able to work together to tackle the event.
My question here, however, is that as this game progresses through the years, and while I highly commend the amazingly talented staff at ArenaNet for this beautifully stunning, highly competitive and vast world we are so humbly allowed to play in…
Could Core Tyria Be made to be more challenging?
For example, I remember, way back when, that we had a series of champions to defeat in Queensdale. The content was brilliant in design, even requiring cooperative play amongst people in the zone, and it even had a title: The Queensdale Champ Train.
But the most important part of those events was that they posed a significant threat… we simply had to learn our characters’ abilities, and we had to learn to work as a team.. and we had to look out for each other, and yes, they were quite difficult!
the excitement in those type of challenges should be felt Tyria-wide, however. I’m not saying have a champion-train in every zone. Moments like the invading Centaur army in Gendarren, for example, is an amazing event, that actually puts your skills to the test, (and if you are unfortunately alone in that event, then heavens help you) as well as prepares you for the later moments in the game where you have to face nigh-impossible odds in order to complete an event.
But that’s just it… that is where Core Loses it’s steam. people get used to hitting 111111, and assume that’s all they have to do to survive, other than dodging. Once they hit level 80 and potentially unlock Heart of Thorns, however, it becomes a whole new ballgame, and the player must now rely on their wit and ability to modify and even use all of the skills in their kitten nal to just get through Verdant Brink.
How… then, could we make Core Tyria harder? Could we give some mobs the ability to have the skills of the Revnant? perhaps give them the ability to use combinations the same way we use ours? would it be possible, nay plausible, to have one or two events in each zone scale up such as the Centaur Invasion in Gendarren of even the Hirathi Hinterlands? for example, a Flame legion Invasion in the Plains of Ashford, where the Legion take over an area en mass and set up their own operations? These are just thoughts, mind you, and I am in no way stating that the content is faceroll. I am, however, asking readers to complete the following sentence:
“Core Tyria could be a bit more difficult if…..”
Blessed be!