Guild Wars 2

Raids were described as being puzzles, but, if we have to run them as a group, doesn’t that completely ruin that aspect of them?

From what I’ve seen in dungeons and other MMO’s raids, the puzzle aspect tends to not even last past the beta in many cases, with guides going out before the patch even goes live, and there are always people explaining the encounters before even letting you attempt them and getting annoyed if you hide party chat to avoid spoilers.

A puzzle isn’t just about figuring it out, it’s also about executing it correctly.

Group puzzles are fun to execute, that’s why a lot of people like playing guild challenges. This doesn’t “ruin” the aspect for me but actually makes it more appealing.

If you want to learn the things on your own however, you’re better off finding a team of friends/guildies/likeminded people.

Group puzzles are often more about execution than creative problem solving. Think of it like a machine with a lot of moving parts. To make the machine run every part has to be in the right place and doing the right thing. You might know how to put them all together, but it gets a lot more complicated when you have to ask them to put themselves together, and it feels really awesome when you can make it happen as it’s a very pure expression of teamwork.

The “puzzle” part was mentioned to alleviate the problem with people thinking it’s going to be another “full zerk dps down quickly” thing.

I wouldn’t put too much meaning into it.

To be fair, today’s blog post kinda does reinforce the “you will still need full zerk, high DPS at SOME point in raids” perception.

Sure, but i assume it’s going to be balanced similarly to other games where the DPS group can provide enough damage leaving the tank and healer parts free to do their job. So not everyone will have to use full dps gear.

Thus we will have trinity/duality. We’ll probably also have classes that won’t ever see the inside of a raid wing because of this.