Guild Wars 2

I don’t know how many others have played through the revised Victory or Death story step. I’ve not seen much discussion of it, so I’m curious to hear others’ experience.

I’ve been eagerly waiting for the changes to come out so that it could be done without a full party. I played through it today with one other party member, and I’m a little disappointed because it was so easy that it didn’t present any kind of challenge at all.

In fact the biggest challenge of the whole thing was trying to get to read the NPCs dialog. At the start of the Ruined City of Arah section, you can’t read through what the Destiny’s Edge members have to say without them running off mid-way through to fight the risen that keep spawning.

All three of the champions at that point die so quickly and easily that I was just asking “Is that it?” And probably because of that Logan’s big self-sacrificing moment felt really lackluster.

The fight on the airship seems like it’s supposed to start with the Destiny’s Edge members mourning Logan’s apparent death—at least I think that’s supposed to be the emotional weight in the story telling. I’m not sure though because by the time I got to them in the airship and tried to read their dialog, I was having to run to the other end of the ship for the next bit of combat.

The battle on the deck of the airship was marginally more satisfying. I felt like I had to at least pay attention and I can see how it would present a challenge if you were indeed playing it solo, so I have no big complaints there. But imo the Arah part and the landing pad part (which was so easy that I almost forgot it even happened) really need some adjusting.

I never played the story step in its original version, so this is just my opinion, based on going in with no prior knowledge. But to be clear, I am not complaining about the shooting down Zhaitan with cannons portion. I felt like that was pretty well done, actually (I know that will be a minority opinion).

I also know that not everyone cares about what the NPCs have to say, but after having followed the story of Destiny’s Edge from the Edge of Destiny novel all the way through the personal story, I feel like I should get a chance in the instance to read their dialog about one of their members’ seeming deaths if I want to.

This is what people asked for, sadly. They said Victory or Death was so hard, so the deck mobs and Zhaitan were nerfed. They still complained that it had a party requirement so it was made soloable.

The mission, like so much in this game (remember pre-nerf Orr?), brought down to make it like the rainbow clouds easy mode of SAB.

As the saying goes – I’d rather fight for something I want and not get it, than fight for something I don’t want and get it.

I just think there could be a balance where soloable doesn’t have to mean totally without challenge. I mean there are some personal story steps earlier on that provided more of a challenge than this.

I did actually poke my nose into the original version of Victory of Death with the same friend who I completed it with tonight. And we very quickly found that we just couldn’t get beyond the first room, so we gave up. I agree with people who said that you ought to be able to do it without a full party. But I think there ought to be a middle ground. Soloable should not mean snoozefest.

Compared to the Claw Island battles, for example, the final story step right now is a joke.

I don’t have any level 80s which haven’t done VoD. I’ll see if I can re-play it with one of my 80s later today.

I’ve done it both before and after the update and I don’t think they made it any easier (or harder). As I remember it one of the biggest complaints about this mission, right from launch, is that it’s very simple and therefore boring. Many people described it as “mash 2 to win!” and talked about how disappointing it was compared to earlier fights.

Obviously it’s been rebalanced to allow you to do it solo, but it wasn’t like it was a huge challenge with lots of highly coordinated combat and difficult mechanics when it was a 5-man dungeon.

Yeah, it’s far, far too easy.

I hope the Mordremoth fight will be a massive scale raid that requires effort, skill and coordination to succeed in.

I finished my mesmer personal story today and comparing it with the first time I did it with my main the only difference that I saw was that it took me significantly less time to solo it today than to do it with 5 people 1 year ago. I found the airship part (when you fight the two dragons and the giants) more challenging (a tiny bit more only) because I had to take care of the canons and the risen that spawned on the airship alone. It was still pretty easy though.

However, Thanks to the fact that I was alone I discovered a mecanic that the Zhaitan fight has. When you are in the part where you just “111111111111111111” if you don’t spam it and take your time to kill Zhaitan he will spawn tendrils on the floor of the airship to try to kill you. I discovered it because I fired the canon until I got him to 2% or something close to that and then I stopped just to look at the boss and explore the ship before I ended the “battle”. After a short while he spawned the tendrils. I don’t know if this is new but I don’t remember fighting those tendrils when I did it with my main.

Danikat.8537:

I’ve done it both before and after the update and I don’t think they made it any easier (or harder). As I remember it one of the biggest complaints about this mission, right from launch, is that it’s very simple and therefore boring. Many people described it as “mash 2 to win!” and talked about how disappointing it was compared to earlier fights.

Obviously it’s been rebalanced to allow you to do it solo, but it wasn’t like it was a huge challenge with lots of highly coordinated combat and difficult mechanics when it was a 5-man dungeon.

This was how I felt about it, too. I’ve done it on two characters since the change, once solo and once with one other person. Both times felt about the same difficulty level as it was as a 5-man. This story section/story dungeon has always been very, very easy.

If you’re going in with a geared 80, of course everything’s going to be easy. The personal story is for the newer players. Try playing the game from a casual new player’s perspective and only equip what is given to you through the personal story and level up rewards. Additionally, play as one of the low defense professions and only melee. For further increased difficulty, simply play naked and without traits. Even Queensdale can be challenging if you want it to be.

Healix.5819:

If you’re going in with a geared 80, of course everything’s going to be easy. The personal story is for the newer players. Try playing the game from a casual new player’s perspective and only equip what is given to you through the personal story and level up rewards. Additionally, play as one of the low defense professions and only melee. For further increased difficulty, simply play naked and without traits. Even Queensdale can be challenging if you want it to be.

I actually did that the other day on my elementalist. Not as bad as I expected. Underwater fights with a lv28 blue weapon is a bit slow …

Wait, you didn’t get bugged out on the ship?

When the ship got to the giants they sat there, the ship didn’t move and no mobs spawned. I waited 7 minutes then submitted a bug report.

The challenge was not getting mad that I’d wasted time on it for nothing.

I did VoD with one of my warriors and my 2 Axe / Greatsword Ranger and found the new solo story mode satisfying. I was able to catch the story without being booted for taking too long and that is something I am missing from ALL the story mode dungeons. Can’t watch the story without getting kicked.

All the story mode dungeons should be setup this way.

Leave the Explorable modes the way they are for the dungeon runners.

I duoed the final story step yesterday.

The difficulty felt fine. Although given I was a ranger blasting mobs away with my new powerful build. Switching from cannons to dealing with mobs has you on your toes.

The final fight with Zhaitan himself how ever was pretty easy. But it always has been. Just you don’t need a party for it now.

Danikat.8537:

I’ve done it both before and after the update and I don’t think they made it any easier (or harder). As I remember it one of the biggest complaints about this mission, right from launch, is that it’s very simple and therefore boring. Many people described it as “mash 2 to win!” and talked about how disappointing it was compared to earlier fights.

The mission actually get nerfed (made easier) a month or so after release. There were more mobs to fight before, and they were tougher. Even the Mouth of Zhaitan got its health reduced.

So now it’s just a roflcakewalk. But originally it was well balanced until the final phase of Zhaitan which was the mash 2.

It would be nice if all the story mode dungeons were soloable. I’ve done all of them but have never been able to watch any of the cutscenes due to the impatience of others. It’s a shame really.

Healix.5819:

If you’re going in with a geared 80, of course everything’s going to be easy. The personal story is for the newer players. Try playing the game from a casual new player’s perspective and only equip what is given to you through the personal story and level up rewards. Additionally, play as one of the low defense professions and only melee. For further increased difficulty, simply play naked and without traits. Even Queensdale can be challenging if you want it to be.

That’s exactly how I did the solo version. I was on my elementalist, wearing whatever I got as level up and story rewards and as drops. I have no idea what the stats were but I suspect they were all over the place. Item levels ranged from high 60’s to 80 and the rarities from blue to exotic.

Admittedly when I did the 5-man version I was on a fully geared 80, but that was a ranger in a mix of rabid and carrion gear, with my friends on whatever professions they wanted to bring (Mesmer, warrior, necro and an engi if I remember correctly) and I have no idea what stats they were using.

As I said I didn’t find it particularly difficult either time.

I have had it bug at the giants 4 times, 5th time i let all the conversations go without impatience and it progressed.

The mission is not a lot different to the old 5 man and I intend soloing it again as my characters reach that point. Difficulty is personal, I do things I enjoy.

elkirin.8534:

I have had it bug at the giants 4 times, 5th time i let all the conversations go without impatience and it progressed.

The mission is not a lot different to the old 5 man and I intend soloing it again as my characters reach that point. Difficulty is personal, I do things I enjoy.

I think it has something to do with skipping the cutscenes that activates the bug.

I just bugged out on “Romke’s Final Voyage”. I’ll see whether it bugs without skipping the cutscenes this time. Got all the way to the end too :/

Edit: Just finished that story step and can confirm it has something to do with skipping cutscenes. I’ll have to be patient until they get around to a fix :/

Try to imagine this story when you didn’t know it, the first time, without any assistence, without knowing what’s coming.

You really can’t judge an instance of any kind after you’ve done it a few times.

I just did the solo version of this for the first time today. It was really enjoyable to watch all the cutscenes at leisure, and I didn’t have to worry about members of a group that didn’t know what to do. I thought it was great overall.

The only thing I found challenging was the airship deck fight with the three minions. That was kind of tricky what with all the risen spawning plus needing to use the cannons. Overall, though, it was a nice change.

I found it challenging on my condition necro and died multiple times soloing it :P
First time I have finished that story part so it was satisfying, though it took awhile.

Miss Lana.5276:

Wait, you didn’t get bugged out on the ship?

When the ship got to the giants they sat there, the ship didn’t move and no mobs spawned. I waited 7 minutes then submitted a bug report.

The challenge was not getting mad that I’d wasted time on it for nothing.

The one with 3 giants on the right? This is a very old bug which I thought they had fixed. Basically you get past it by not attacking, just reflecting attacks.

The first time I got that point on my main I was disapointed that I had to get a group for it, and as such that took away from my enjoyment of it. That was also before the first nerfs, so it was actually kinda difficult… ofc. it was also the first time and that does make a difference too.

Done it post nerfs but prior to the new solo change on 3 characters (and repeated a few times on my main), mostly because guildies needed it and then I just joined up… not bothered to seek it out, for the characters that needed it. I had sorta accpeted that it was not to be enjoyed on my own like the rest of the personal story, although thats what I wished for, from the very begining.

Done it solo now on the 1 character that did not have it yet and quite enjoyed it, the difficulty felt pretty much on par with, when I did it with a decent group, so all in all I just wish I could have experienced it this way the first time.

I really like when story… be it personal story or living story works as solo, but is challengeing enough that some people decide to do group for it. For many of the slightly more challenging LS chapters I did them solo first, fully enjoyed having to figure out what to do and enjoy MY story, after that I got to enjoy helping others through who struggled with it more than I did.

I did it whit my PVT gard solo.

the only hard part was in the smal air-ship while there ware risens around and 2 dragon champions to shoot-off whit cannons. but it was doable.

The mouth-boss whit the rocks was easy and slow.

it was a nice story and I liked it
(I did it for 9th time….)

I missed the update notes about this and did it with 5-man party… I got so supriced over how easy it was and it scaled realy bad with 5 players. I did it solo after that to try it out and it was realy easy, but though I did it with my Invincible MM Necro so that not realy my best class to test if it is easy or not.

Anyhow I am gonna come up with some Pro’s and cons.

Pro’s
- I can do it solo now and don’t have to wait for a group to do the story with all my alt’s.
- It is easy and it is rather a quick run compaired to before.

Con’s
- Getting a DC in the story instance results in a restart of the instance (Happened to a freind).
- It’s to easy and that makes it no fun. In my opinion.
- It feels wheird thinking why do they have six cannons and only one “soldier” to manage them?

There were parts that followed the usual GW2 fashion of being extremely tedious. The tower on the landing pad surrounded by (respawning!) risen gorillas was frustrating as hell, and the only place I died due to being in a permanent state of knockdown. I find it fascinating that someone actually looked at that and thought it was good game design. Yay perma-stun!

I did like the mouth of Zhaitan part… after the seemingly neverending drudgery of bosses that just serve as hp punching bags, this guy required a strategy (albeit as simple as a strategy you could get) different than whittling down a puzzlingly large hp bar.

Hey O.P if you are going to place a MAJOR spoiler then you should let us know that’s what you are doing… not everyone here is an old hat at this game, so yeah… thanks for that

Dreavian.8340:

Hey O.P if you are going to place a MAJOR spoiler then you should let us know that’s what you are doing… not everyone here is an old hat at this game, so yeah… thanks for that

Not to be mean, but if you don’t want the story spoiled, clicking on a thread labeled “Soloing Zhaitan” is probably not in your best interests.

Eh, it was always a huge letdown to a decent story. I did it within the first month of release and was bored with it. Then as recently as 4 months ago, still bored with it, but it seemed easy (just loooooong). Haven’t tried it solo yet, but don’t expect it to be much different.

It is a shame really. Huge buildup, then go toe-to-toe with the biggest threat Tyria has ever see, and the result is press 2, press 2, press 2, press 2, press 2, press 2…(though I heard now they updated the cannon skill to press 1)

While I don’t disagree with what is being said about the difficulty, the REAL issue I always had with it was the LENGTH of the mission in total. It always seemed as if that VD should really be broken up into 2 or 3 instanced story missions (I’m guessing it’t now one long, boring 45 minute instanced story mission…).

I did this mission solo a couple of days ago.
It took me a lot longer, than it did before I needed a party.
I was on my Ele glass cannon, so I died a lot.
There were no boss chests during the first instance, which I thought was a bit odd.
There was a bit of trouble with the giants and mobs they tossed on board.
The difficult part was trying to keep ahead of the giants, reflecting stuff back to them and killing the mobs.
I finally had to drag the mobs back to the NPC’s so that they would either help heal me or help to kill the mobs.
The trouble I had with the Hunger was, it would not spit up its flaming hairballs. That and I was not fast enough to get out of the way. But, finally, did get past him.
Everything else, did not have too much of an issue with.
That being said, I understand why they made this a solo able mission, I would rather wait for my friends/guild mates. Not because it was hard, but because I enjoy doing things with my guildies.

Jenstone.6891:

There were no boss chests during the first instance, which I thought was a bit odd.

The reason for that is because it’s not a dungeon path anymore. Now, it’s just a long personal story chapter. Thus, no mobs drop loot, and there are no boss chests.

rapthorne.7345:

Yeah, it’s far, far too easy.

I hope the Mordremoth fight will be a massive scale raid that requires effort, skill and coordination to succeed in.

Nope won’t happen. You’re forgetting that people will find it too hard and/or they won’t feel like a hero fighting him in a big zurg. Also, it looks like we will be using forgotten magic to beat mordi, so at most it will be DE and DE 2.0 with the PC at fighting Mordi.

I did it solo with my elementalist, guardian and warrior because they (and I) where never in Arah.

I think the difficulty is similar to the rest of the personal story. It is not for “veterans” in full-ascended but for rather new players in blue/green gear.

But the end-fight with Zhaitan was much easier than I hoped.

1. use the cannon and press 11111 and ignore the rest
2. when Zhaitan knocks you back, just go back to the cannon and repeat step (1)
3. when the aoe/bubbling thingy hurts you, just ignore it and continue pressing 1111,
when you finally go into down-state just wait a moment until Zojja heals you and then repeat step 1

Invictus.1503:

It is a shame really. Huge buildup, then go toe-to-toe with the biggest threat Tyria has ever see, and the result is press 2, press 2, press 2, press 2, press 2, press 2…(though I heard now they updated the cannon skill to press 1)

For the other dragons you have 1-shield 2-shoot, only for Zhaitan you have 1-shoot.

So, if you dont play focused and press 2 at the Zhaitan fight, it could take a while until he dies of boredom.

P.S. But I really like it, that the PS can now be finished solo.

In Victory or Death, the double-champions that you need to shoot with cannons plus deck spawning mobs is actually the most challenging piece after update. And that’s mainly because you actually need to pay attention and you aren’t getting 7 NPCs to help you. Story and pacing is fine.

I never got in to dungeons unfortunately, I took a break shortly after release, and by the time I came back nobody seemed to want to do them unless you were “experienced” much less just play it through for the story and watch the cut scenes. So, long story short, I’d never completed the personal story on any of my characters. I think this is great. It takes nothing away from the people doing it in organized groups, and lets those of us who just want to see the story do so without trying to recruit help. I would honestly love to see all of the dungeon story modes playable this way. I think it would also draw more people who don’t do dungeons in to potentially doing them, as they could experience at least the one story path at their own pace and get a general idea of what’s going on with out inconveniencing anyone else.

GuzziHero.5104:

Miss Lana.5276:

Wait, you didn’t get bugged out on the ship?

When the ship got to the giants they sat there, the ship didn’t move and no mobs spawned. I waited 7 minutes then submitted a bug report.

The challenge was not getting mad that I’d wasted time on it for nothing.

The one with 3 giants on the right? This is a very old bug which I thought they had fixed. Basically you get past it by not attacking, just reflecting attacks.

“When the ship got to the giants they sat there, the ship didn’t move and no mobs spawned.”

I said this in the post that you responded to.