Instanced Hard Mode

Instanced Hard Mode

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Posted by: Stand The Wall.6987

Stand The Wall.6987

During my time playing Guild Wars 2 I have had great memories. When I recollect, I often compare it to Guild Wars 1 and how it had a Hard Mode. What a great thing it would be if Guild Wars 2 had it too!

Currently the only thing holding me back from replaying the story is how easy it is. Hard Mode would add replay ability (depending on how hard it is, could be a lot!) in the form of an added challenge for us masochists out here. Not only that; if the AI got some boosts, then it stands to reason that some of us would have to up our game too, making our PvP game better!

Wait, why stop there? Hard Mode would definitely keep some of us playing this great franchise a bit longer, but we could go even further. Allow us to host our own instances! This would be a great way to test our mettle under ideal circumstances while taking some of the load off of you guys! Not to mention possibly alleviating * ahem * lag problems some of us may have.

Wait, why stop there. Story? Check. Hmmmm… Dungeons? Fractals?? Raids??? Many of us could enjoy this great content all over again with a few tweaks. For the truly insane, there could even be a solo option for all instanced content. Imagine that. Soloing a raid, like a boss, and showing off your complete awesomeness via a title. I don’t know about you, but I would definitely put a ton of my time into getting that title.

For my final attempt at convincing whomever may be listening, I bribe you with the one and only kitty wabbit. Resistance is futile.

Attachments:

Team Deathmatch for PvP – Raise the AoE cap for WvW – More unique events for PvE

Instanced Hard Mode

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Posted by: Vayne.8563

Vayne.8563

I don’t think it’s too far out of reach to say that fractals and raids are going to be the only real hard mode we get. Anet doesn’t have, in my opinion, the resources to work on an expansion, a living world, raids and fractals, and a hard mode. And I don’t think, by percentage, enough of the people would use hard mode to make it worth the effort.

Instanced Hard Mode

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Posted by: maddoctor.2738

maddoctor.2738

1. Hard mode for story
They are making advancements in this part, by adding hard achievements in the story, and challenge motes that make the story instances a lot harder. Story instances since LS2 have more replayability than the old personal story which is a good way going forward.
They could add something similar to old personal story but the it would require a serious re-work to make the instances re-playable (you can’t reactivate them like the LS episodes) and I don’t think it’s worth the trouble to mess again with the personal story.
So what they can do, and hopefully continue to do, is add these challenging achievements and challenge motes to future story instances and there is no reason to believe that they won’t continue this path.

2. Hard mode maps
As I understand it, what you are asking for in the third paragraph is to host hard mode versions of open world maps? In that case the main problem will be the community split, it will make harder to find players for either of the modes. I don’t think it’s worth the effort. All the new zones added in the game since release had higher difficulty than the Core Tyria. Which is another thing they can do with minimal impact.

3. Hard mode instances
Dungeons are rather dead so I’m not sure if upgrading them is worth it. It’s funny how in the old days players were asking for an easy mode for dungeons and now players are asking for a hard mode for dungeons. How things change.

Fractals already have a higher difficulty setting. The problem with Fractals is the scaling doesn’t affect most aspects of the encounters, it only scales damage and hit points, which means a T5,T6 and so on Fractal tier would be easy to implement but rather pointless.

Raids are new-ish in the game. The easiest way to add that extra challenge to them is by making the achievements associated with the encounters repeatable. The “hard mode” version of Bandit Trio is by not using the environment, the “hard mode” for Sabetha is leaving one cannon alive for the entire fight and so on. There are achievements for these but they do not offer anything repeatable so they are only done once.

As for the solo part, you can already try to solo anything… and aside from Raids and certain dungeons that require a fixed amount of people, everything can be done solo. Adding a solo version of a Raid would require it to not be the same encounter but rather a significantly weaker one, I wouldn’t call defeating that version as a sign of awesomeness.

Basically the answer is the same for everything concerning hard mode. Instead of adding a hard mode version of old instances/story/maps, make NEW things that are harder. Win-win. The main issue with that is that difficulty must have a proper progression, which is one of the major faults of the game atm.

OR the alternative is to make some of the achievements repeatable with some extra added rewards. That way for example the LS2 achievements will be done more often, making it easier for newer players to find people to do them with, since some are really hard to solo.

(edited by maddoctor.2738)

Instanced Hard Mode

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Posted by: Vukorep.3081

Vukorep.3081

Id like to start that besides the world and the lore there isnt much to compare gw2 and gw1 on.

Adding hard mode in dungeons fractals and raids by simply buffing up the monsters health/toughness and adding a few more skills wouldnt change anything with the players.

People will still have full zerker and try to burst it down..it would just take a little longer with a few extra dodges. And if you think the current dungeons would get raid tier quality bosses then you are going to be dissapointed.

We see “hard mode” in fractals via the agony system, special global effects, and lastly the latest fractal did add raid tier bosses and mechanics. Not only that there is indeed a hard mode version of the latest nightmare fractal where things are often different than they normally are (different, not random)

As for hard mode personal story….personal story is ment to be soloable and PERSONAL. The story revolves around the character, not the character+ 4 or 9 other players. They “fixed” the replay “issues” with adding some easy,some hard achievements that reward you with mastery points, ascended gear and even some gem store items.

Instanced Hard Mode

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Posted by: Daddicus.6128

Daddicus.6128

I can’t speak to hard mode (or, won’t, rather). However, I recommend doing the storyline on multiple characters. The different missions you see really build on each other, and on some events and locations in the zones. Even though it isn’t very difficult, I find it fun.

Instanced Hard Mode

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Posted by: Illconceived Was Na.9781

Illconceived Was Na.9781

We have better than instanced hard mode for fractals: four tiers which are functionally equivalent to what we had in GW1: spongier, more durable foes that hit harder, with additional hazards.

We also have some stories that include a “challenge” mote that does something similar.

The problem with adding more examples of “hard mode” is that it means fewer resources for everything else. Besides the costs of implementing it for the first time, there are also increased costs for QA/bug fixing and balancing rewards as the rest of the game changes.

John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”

Instanced Hard Mode

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Posted by: Shivan.9438

Shivan.9438

I like your idea. Although, my take on instanced hard mode is different. It would be HoT maps, such as Auric Basin, Dragon’s Stand and Tangled Depths, but would be instanced.

To give a basic scenario; and we’ll use Auric Basin as an example, a commander puts together a full squad, everyone goes into an instanced version and does the map as usual. The mobs are tougher, do more damage, may have resistances or immunities to certain damage types, this could also be random every map. The players start with a mapwide debuff and activating all the pylons negates it, otherwise completing the Octovine event with the debuff will be considerably harder. Another tweak that can be added is if the event is completed before a certain time, then a bonus chest appears. Or if a person has special key that’s assembled that unlocks another loot chamber with one big chest that gives extra loot. (like at the end of Fire Elemental in Metrica.) Getting the key wouldn’t be something a solo player could do either, it’d have to be at least a 5 man job.

Hard mode would also have some requirements.

A person would have to have an achievement showing they’ve completed AB X amount of times, so inexperienced players can’t just jump in and ruin a well coordinated map. Even after you’ve completed AB the required number of times to unlock it, you have to buy a hard mode token, and it should cost a lot to stop people from farming hard mode. The token should cost certain amount of karma, plus so much of that map’s currency and some gold. If you do all of that, you still can’t get in unless you’re in a squad. And finally, even if a player has (we’ll say 10 tokens) there would be cooldown period between maps, like in Dragon’s Stand. It would give players time to go do something else, such as replenish their karma, earn more gold and map currency on normal mode.

The end result would ensure that players are rewarded for their coordinated effort. It would be great guild advertisement, helping both small and big guilds grow. It would give a challenge to players who have completed “normal mode” and want something to bite into.