Guild Wars 2

Horror & Lich seem to be weakened. Lich even got killed quite easily this year. But I remembered we still needed techniques to kill it last year.

It’s quite disappointing Not horrible at all.

I think they reduced how often it summoned its minion skeletons and perhaps the quantity too. That’s what wiped most groups when the Lich gave them the retaliation buff.

I don’t recall Horror being all that difficult in previous years.

They nerfed the retaliation that would normally wipe groups, there probably spawn far less minions too plus all bosses seem to die faster. I think they basically nerfed all of the bosses as the giant candy corn used to kill quite some people too.

Horror is the same as far as I can tell, Lich is def nerfed (happy to say)

Don’t forget to take into account we are stronger than previous years now more players have access to elites and better builds.

The Horror was really easy last year (and pretty easy the year before that). Lich was, indeed, nerfed a bit, but I have no complaints about it.

Unless I’ve been lucky with dead maps, the population cap seems to have been halved. Less people on the lich means less of the deadly retaliation adds. Personally, it seemed the same, just with less health. People being spread out and spawning retaliation everywhere was the only the problem in the past. When people stacked and mowed down the adds as they spawned, before they could gain retaliation, it was easy.

It’s no surprise that they’d nerf them however. They could take a while with a zerg of low levels and 1 button spammers.

Condi necros also corrupt boons just doing their usual thing.

3 things. Corrupt boon meta. Break Bar. HoT power creep.

Lahmia.2193:

3 things. Corrupt boon meta. Break Bar. HoT power creep.

The HoT power creep has made the trash mobs really easy. I’m not sure how much the corrupt boon is impacting trash mobs or the mini-bosses, as I’m not sure what boons the mobs in the Labyrinth are using. The Break Bar seems to be the main reason the mini-bosses are vastly easier. Proper timing of a break seems to prevent them from using their most dangerous skills.

Also, at some point ANet fixed an issue that affected a map cap issue. During at least one of the prior years, the issue would tend to spawn lots of map instances, causing new players entering the labyrinth to end up in an empty or very sparsely populated instance of the map. Players could overcome this by getting a taxi into another instance, but some players may not have realized that and struggled, especially against the mini-bosses.

With it now rewarding mastery XP, there’s also less low levels. Low damage guardian staff spammers were/are also a popular option for their ease of AoE, and I guess low damage so others could tag, because clearly a high damage staff elementalist is superior.

I’ve yet to see more than ~10 people in there this year, so I’m guessing the population cap was lowered, which means lower scaling and making it easier to carry. I remember like 20+ people, where 5-10 would lay there dead on the viscount after ignoring the mechanic (example).

Healix.5819:

With it now rewarding mastery XP, there’s also less low levels. Low damage guardian staff spammers were/are also a popular option for their ease of AoE, and I guess low damage so others could tag, because clearly a high damage staff elementalist is superior.

I’ve yet to see more than ~10 people in there this year, so I’m guessing the population cap was lowered, which means lower scaling and making it easier to carry. I remember like 20+ people, where 5-10 would lay there dead on the viscount after ignoring the mechanic (example).

I’ve seen a full squad on the map. You’re just on a near empty map.

I was with a group of about 15-20 last night and lich died pretty quick. Then later a group of 10 and his retaliation killed all but 2 of us. Luckily he was low enough we were able to get him, but on the last break bar both of us went down, he died having rocks thrown at him

The horror on the other hand definately seems easier than last year with fewer people, but will still mess you up of you get stuck in his chainsaw.

But for lich, I remember needing atleast a group of 20 last year, even then the fight was longer than the first run I encountered last night. So something is different in that fight.

Viscount seemed about the same, but I’ve yet to enounter him with less than 10 people.

We didn’t have elite specs last year, so it’s not unreasonable for Anet to have modified some things in these fights to compensate for our increased OPness.

most players didnt earn their elite skills so fast last year, as Halloween and HoT went live at the same time

Power creep combined with players learning to survive in content more difficult than core zones almost certainly have contributed to a sense of reduced difficulty here. Compared to core zone mobs Lab monsters are a significant step up. Compared to HoT, not as much so.

HazyDaisy.4107:

I was with a group of about 15-20 last night and lich died pretty quick. Then later a group of 10 and his retaliation killed all but 2 of us. Luckily he was low enough we were able to get him, but on the last break bar both of us went down, he died having rocks thrown at him

The horror on the other hand definately seems easier than last year with fewer people, but will still mess you up of you get stuck in his chainsaw.

But for lich, I remember needing atleast a group of 20 last year, even then the fight was longer than the first run I encountered last night. So something is different in that fight.

Viscount seemed about the same, but I’ve yet to enounter him with less than 10 people.

We didn’t have elite specs last year, so it’s not unreasonable for Anet to have modified some things in these fights to compensate for our increased OPness.

We did have elite specs last year.

Ayrilana.1396:

I’ve seen a full squad on the map. You’re just on a near empty map.

A full 50 squad? That would certainly feel more like previous years. If that many can fit, then half the map must be reserved for taxis. More precisely, in maybe 10 maps so far, the numbers I actually see following the commander seems to cap out at 15, maybe 20 tops if I assume there’s AFK people up top, and those numbers remain stable for the hour I stick around.

Ayrilana.1396:

HazyDaisy.4107:

I was with a group of about 15-20 last night and lich died pretty quick. Then later a group of 10 and his retaliation killed all but 2 of us. Luckily he was low enough we were able to get him, but on the last break bar both of us went down, he died having rocks thrown at him

The horror on the other hand definately seems easier than last year with fewer people, but will still mess you up of you get stuck in his chainsaw.

But for lich, I remember needing atleast a group of 20 last year, even then the fight was longer than the first run I encountered last night. So something is different in that fight.

Viscount seemed about the same, but I’ve yet to enounter him with less than 10 people.

We didn’t have elite specs last year, so it’s not unreasonable for Anet to have modified some things in these fights to compensate for our increased OPness.

We did have elite specs last year.

Lol even still not everyone did and of those that did have then not many knew how to use them. So in essence, we didn’t have them.

Wanze.8410:

most players didnt earn their elite skills so fast last year, as Halloween and HoT went live at the same time

Plus, tons of people were power-leveling new toons — lots and lots of uplevels. Also: although many still have trouble breaking defiance, we are much better at it now then we were before.

In short: given that ANet made so few changes to Halloween, it seems more likely that the community is more efficient farming the labyrinth than that ANet nerfed the bosses.

HazyDaisy.4107:

Ayrilana.1396:

HazyDaisy.4107:

I was with a group of about 15-20 last night and lich died pretty quick. Then later a group of 10 and his retaliation killed all but 2 of us. Luckily he was low enough we were able to get him, but on the last break bar both of us went down, he died having rocks thrown at him

The horror on the other hand definately seems easier than last year with fewer people, but will still mess you up of you get stuck in his chainsaw.

But for lich, I remember needing atleast a group of 20 last year, even then the fight was longer than the first run I encountered last night. So something is different in that fight.

Viscount seemed about the same, but I’ve yet to enounter him with less than 10 people.

We didn’t have elite specs last year, so it’s not unreasonable for Anet to have modified some things in these fights to compensate for our increased OPness.

We did have elite specs last year.

Lol even still not everyone did and of those that did have then not many knew how to use them. So in essence, we didn’t have them.

Well based on your post that Anet modified content to compensate for the elite specs’ OPness, this would imply that they buffed the mobs. They either kept things the same or nerfed some aspects such as the Lich.

I’m fairly certain that bosses didn’t have break bars during last year’s labyrinth, as I recall thinking it was odd that they didn’t as the mechanic had been introduced fairly recently before Halloween itself. So I’m attributing most of the seemingly “easier” nature of the bosses to that. Not only does the break bar mechanic sometimes interrupt the bosses’ more dangerous attacks (mainly with the Viscount and his projectile rain of doom) but it also increases damage done by players, making the encounters shorter and leading to less deaths.

Outside of that, the only thing that seems specifically “nerfed” is the retaliation minions on the Lich. Prior years, if you had any sort of multi-hit AoE going and that summon went off, you were downed almost instantly. This year, I’ve fought the Lich a number of times using things like Flamethrower and haven’t seen anything like that at all. Not sure what exactly was nerfed about it (whether the Retal doesn’t kick in right away when the minions are summoned, less are being summoned, their power was toned down so it doesn’t do as much damage, ect), but I do think something definitely was.