Guild Wars 2

One of the issues with trying to do DEs alone (or in some cases with small groups) is that NPCs there assisting die way too quickly. It’s not just a game-play annoyance, it’s also just kind of silly and immersion breaking. In general, NPCs (especially wandering ones) stay dead more often than they are alive simply because they die in a few seconds when engaging even a single mob, which is really just kind of goofy.

Note that I am not necessarily arguing that they should be able to win DEs by themselves, nor do I think they even need to provide more than marginal offensive support. They just need to not die so easily that DEs are often lost as soon as they start and so (especially solo) players aren’t completely wasting their time reviving them while losing the DE because they lack any support. Having NPCs be more survivable and pitching into the fight also just makes battles feel more epic and therefore more fun, especially for solo players.

IMO, it would really just make for a better gaming experience across the board.

Why shouldn’t NPC’s be able to win events? If there’s no players around they should have a 50/50 chance at it.

Phy.2913:

Why shouldn’t NPC’s be able to win events? If there’s no players around they should have a 50/50 chance at it.

I wasn’t really arguing that they shouldn’t be able to; I’m just making the point that if anything they at least need to have their defenses buffed so they can survive longer, whether on their own or with players helping.

Personally, I think the DE system needs some upgrades in that area – DEs shoudn’t really even happen unless there are players around, and the chances of one happening in any given moment should increase based on the number of players in the area. The rewards should also scale based on how long it had been since the last time the event was triggered.

This would balance out with the way bonus experience for kills works and would just make the game world, especially Orr, feel a little less ridiculous, and would also be a lot more scalable.

NPCs should scale.

Bosses do, ads do, players do. NPCs? Too bad, Balth wont open today because the NPCs didnt find 100+ lvl80s with ascended morally encouraging.

Einlanzer.1627:

Phy.2913:

Why shouldn’t NPC’s be able to win events? If there’s no players around they should have a 50/50 chance at it.

I wasn’t really arguing that they shouldn’t be able to; I’m just making the point that if anything they at least need to have their defenses buffed so they can survive longer, whether on their own or with players helping.

Personally, I think the DE system needs some upgrades in that area – DEs shoudn’t really even happen unless there are players around, and the chances of one happening in any given moment should increase based on the number of players in the area. The rewards should also scale based on how long it had been since the last time the event was triggered.

This would balance out with the way bonus experience for kills works and would just make the game world, especially Orr, feel a little less ridiculous.

There’s already a lot of DE’s that only trigger when a player interacts with someone/something. I would love to see more variety, even going as far as removing most of a zones current events for new ones.

Making NPC’s actually useful, in all areas of the game, wouldn’t hurt either.

Seeing areas full of dead only NPCs makes me sad, and looks kind of silly. They should respawn after a while if not resurrected by a player, and I second the idea that they should get a chance to win an event, maybe scaling their power level according to the number of players involved starting with “none”, to avoid them being too powerful leading to the situation where even the least amount of help provided by a player would be enough to clear the event. As it is now, “friendly” factions NPCs look like the weakest being in all Tyria.

That being said, I think it’s unrealistic to expect an overhaul to dynamic event system to actually make possible for NPCs to win the fight, or to NPCs combat skills in general.

Fortus.6175:

NPCs should scale.

Bosses do, ads do, players do. NPCs? Too bad, Balth wont open today because the NPCs didnt find 100+ lvl80s with ascended morally encouraging.

Well that aside. The NPCs for many events are actually underleveled. It is not uncommon to see NPCs that are 2 or 3 levels below the recommended level for the event.

Completely agree. Ever since they buffed up the risen mobs, this has become even more of an issue. Risen are supposed to draw strength from being in large numbers. When 1 risen noble can take out 5 pact members with a single attack, something is wrong and needs to be readjusted.

Just take a look at the final Balthazar escort event. Most risen nowadays have AoE attacks that can drop down any NPCs in mere seconds, from veteran acolytes that summon exploding carriers to risen nobles and their OP symbols. If you let any mob reach the NPCs, be prepared to see the moral bar drop down instantly.

So instead of fighting along the Pact as a fellow soldier, we’re babysitting some kind of delusional group that think they’re needed to defeat the great evil balthazar priest. If Anet doesn’t buff up the NPCs, they should at least change them to some kind of “explosive cargo” so it makes more sense lore wise. Because it’s pretty sad to see the Pact’s finest go down by one or two attacks if players don’t intercept the mobs.

Truthbearer.9708:

Completely agree. Ever since they buffed up the risen mobs, this has become even more of an issue. Risen are supposed to draw strength from being in large numbers. When 1 risen noble can take out 5 pact members with a single attack, something is wrong and needs to be readjusted.

Just take a look at the final Balthazar escort event. Most risen nowadays have AoE attacks that can drop down any NPCs in mere seconds, from veteran acolytes that summon exploding carriers to risen nobles and their OP symbols. If you let any mob reach the NPCs, be prepared to see the moral bar drop down instantly.

So instead of fighting along the Pact as a fellow soldier, we’re babysitting some kind of delusional group that think they’re needed to defeat the great evil balthazar priest. If Anet doesn’t buff up the NPCs, they should at least change them to some kind of “explosive cargo” so it makes more sense lore wise. Because it’s pretty sad to see the Pact’s finest go down by one or two attacks if players don’t intercept the mobs.

If you look at it lore wise, the player isn’t even the hero. You’re just a talented individual, in a world full of even more talented NPC’s. And yet the NPC’s eat dirt most of the time.

Einlanzer.1627:

One of the issues with trying to do DEs alone (or in some cases with small groups) is that NPCs there assisting die way too quickly. It’s not just a game-play annoyance, it’s also just kind of silly and immersion breaking. In general, NPCs (especially wandering ones) stay dead more often than they are alive simply because they die in a few seconds when engaging even a single mob, which is really just kind of goofy.

Note that I am not necessarily arguing that they should be able to win DEs by themselves, nor do I think they even need to provide more than marginal offensive support. They just need to not die so easily that DEs are often lost as soon as they start and so (especially solo) players aren’t completely wasting their time reviving them while losing the DE because they lack any support. Having NPCs be more survivable and pitching into the fight also just makes battles feel more epic and therefore more fun, especially for solo players.

IMO, it would really just make for a better gaming experience across the board.

I agree with all

Absolutekly agree to this. NPCs should also scale up and should be in general strogner.
Seriously, even our summons are already much stronger, than all NPCsin the game, and got their maximum health significantly increased.

NPCs shouldt be cannon fodder, they should be really helpful assistance. Especially the legendary NPCs from the edge of destiny.
Important NPC’s should just be invincible and should be able to die at all.

NPCs are no help at all, if every tiny fart of an enemy can kill them literally in seconds.

There hsould be a Morale System like in GW1, that buffs NPCs up, so more effectively players around them kill enemies, like Veteran, Champions ect..

Players kill a Veteran = NPCs get healed/cured and receive +2% more Maximum Heath and Stats.
Players kill a Elite = Npcs get healed/cured and receive 5% more Maximum Health and Stats
Players kill a Champion = NPCs get healed/cured and receive 10% more Health and Stats.

Health and Stat Buffs should reise to a maximum of +100%.
After that following Kills will just only heal/cure Npcs and give them random Buffs, like Aegis, Protection, Regeneration, Retaliation ect.

If players get killed (killed, not downed), that will demoralize your NPCs and reduce again the Morale of your NPCs down to 0.