Guild Wars 2

Hey guys

Loving the game as always, looking forward to the expansion. I am finally playing through Living World season 3 and there is a lot of content there, so congrats and thanks for that! There is one problem, though, which has plagued many missions in Guild Wars 2.

Story missions, especially those with bosses, are way too hard or unfair for solo players.

Yeah, yeah, this is a MMO and blablabla but I bet there are tons of players out there that queue alone and try the story missions. It sucks that a lot of bosses can destroy you so fast. I think that some of them would be okay for 2-3 players but in solo play you just hit your head against the wall, respawn and go at it again. The design is so bad that it doesn´t matter if you die – you can respawn, the boss has the same health as before then you just continue fighting it, dying and repeating.

I think some mobs could be scaled down for single player play and a lot of bosses could do less damage – maybe even as far as 40-50% less damage.

Thanks!

I…i want to know what bosses you are having trouble with?

The only one ive so far needed help with is the final battle with mordremoth due to their stupid prison idea which i kittening hate. Im also running a full vipers/sinister, so i have no defense. Theyve also nerfed them a bit already, both the core story(which has been nerfed really hard) and HoT.

It would certainly be nice if the strength of enemies in story instances could scale depending on whether you are alone or in a party. I don’t like group play, so I end up doing everything by myself, and have also struggled with many mobs and bosses. Sure, I end up succeeding in the end, but only after extreme frustration. This happens no matter what class or build I play.

I’m not being an ELITIST here, I’m a pretty poor player, but I have to disagree. None of the bosses caused me much trouble other than Caudecus (due to the camera and awful AoE bloodstone-throwing mechanics) and Aerin (because screw all this Zephyrite jumping nonsense). If I can beat them, then almost anyone can.

I hate to say L2P, but what are you gonna do?

P.S. Don’t deck your chars in Berserker gear if you have trouble. Toughness and Vitality are the best friends for bad players such as you and I.

Several of the LW3 boss encounters have already been tuned down to make them easier to solo. At this point all of the Living World and personal story steps can be fairly easily handled solo by an appropriately specced & geared character. If you’re having issues I would suggest looking at your build, gear or tactics for weaknesses.

Giving some examples of which bosses you are having trouble with could help

Bosses like the final HoT story, and, maybe the last one in Lake Doric which is an AoE spam fest are much easier with an extra player. But in terms of story missions & bosses being way too hard, or unfair for solo players I would have to disagree.

I know difficulty is subjective, but I don’t use any meta builds, and I’d say my skill level is average at best, but having solo’d the story, HoT & LS chapters with a fairly squishy ele, I’d say 95% of the story missions & bosses are fairly easy, and the other 5% challenging to difficult.

I think the main thing with the story missions is some just require a bit more concentration and awareness of where enemies are than open world does. In terms of being careful where you pull enemies, how many you pull etc. As well as being aware you need to dodge etc, where as in open world in most cases you can get away with not doing so.

Sorry the story was easy. No issues here.

With a thief sometimes you can have troubles with massive damage, but everything can be done by a single player.

Unless some achies like pavillon, but its not store.

Can you give some examples?
I feel sorry, but I desagree.
I have 12 (actualy 13 because PoF) and I have done (90% time alone) almost (MB damage is keeping some of my girls far from this last LS chapter) all stories at least 11 times, some chapters even more because the APs, helping people, guildies, or all that together. And when I say all is ALL: PS, LS2, HoT, LS3.
Having at least one PC of each class I can tell you this: is not that hard.
How are you geared?
What skills are you using?
Same goes for traits, of course.
Are you totally understanding how the battle should be face?

As other people stated here, I think difficulty changes from one person to another, even from one day to another. Just ask your self some of those questions and don’t be afraid to change your builds, your tactic, your way to see the battle.
Too much interrupts? Bring stability. Too much condis, bring cleanse. The battle is too much confusing? Take your time and learn.

Have fun and good luck.

I have soloed every mission in the game. With my Guard. Very rare that I have any issues. Just pay attention tho what you are doing and what skills/abilities the bosses are using. If you are having problems you may want to re-think your build and what you are doing.

Just LFG, there are plenty of people, you just need to wait few minutes… also find some guild, even if you’re not very social you can find some nice guilds.

I think there should be a mixture of easy bosses and more challenging bosses in the story. With the more challenging ones being towards the end of the story.

When I first started, I had to have help with some of the early personal story missions (like level 10 – level 20 ones). Now that I know the game better and especially know my class better, bosses like that would be no problem for me.

Victory or Death, I’ve soloed it 3 times out of the 4 I’ve done it. The 4th would have been soloed if it was possible to do so.

With HoT, I didn’t have to group up with any but the last one but that was only because I wanted to be done quicker and I was having some trouble with an early part of the mission, which I could have succeeded in.

So maybe if you tell us which bosses you’re having trouble with and what your class is and what your gear and traits are, we can help figure out the reasons why.

None of the story instances, including the bosses, are beyond the scale of a solo player. There is one exception if doing the migraine achievement.

Personally, when difficulty increases to the point I am too unskilled to play like open world content, here is what I do: I take my ranged weapons and use my most defenses abilities and traits in combination with my usual power dps or condi dps gear. Once you do that, you will notice that there is really no need to tone down the content any further.

I agree that it would be helpful if you could give specific examples of the bosses you’re having trouble with.

A lot of story bosses, especially in Season 3, have specific mechanics which make the fight much easier. In some cases I’m not actually sure you can beat them without doing it that way, no matter how many people you have or how good you are at combat in general. (If you’ve ever played a Zelda game it’s the same idea – you have to avoid their attacks for a bit, then you get an opportunity to stun them or break their invulnerability, a short time to attack normally and then it starts over.)

If you can tell us which bosses they are we can help you work out what to do as I know it’s not always clear.

You might want to exchange the words, “for solo players,” for, “for me.”

There is nothing wrong with struggling to complete a mission and expressing a preference that an easier mode option be implemented, but you do not speak for solo players as a group.

The only thing I find unfair about the story missions is client instability causing DC’s after you’ve done the fighting but before the long-winded NPC’s finish emoting.

IndigoSundown.5419:

The only thing I find unfair about the story missions is client instability causing DC’s after you’ve done the fighting but before the long-winded NPC’s finish emoting.

This.

Ashen.2907:

IndigoSundown.5419:

The only thing I find unfair about the story missions is client instability causing DC’s after you’ve done the fighting but before the long-winded NPC’s finish emoting.

This.

Agreed 1000%! I had finished the annoying battle in “Plan of Attack” yesterday on another toon (the one with the Menders dragging out the battle), and…server disconnected… x_x I am dreading going back into it today.

Mordremoth the DPS Sponge!! I just tried to do this and failed and I hated the fight so much I haven’t gone back.

It wasn’t that it was so hard but that it’s so long and stupid mechanics. I had him almost beat, almost always full health, when I went into the 3rd glide stage and was hit with a rock and downed into the damage field…DEAD.

So I hit retry thinking it would simply be continued like others….nope start from begin for another 30+min, no thanks.

Gahzirra.8639:

Mordremoth the DPS Sponge!! I just tried to do this and failed and I hated the fight so much I haven’t gone back.

It wasn’t that it was so hard but that it’s so long and stupid mechanics. I had him almost beat, almost always full health, when I went into the 3rd glide stage and was hit with a rock and downed into the damage field…DEAD.

So I hit retry thinking it would simply be continued like others….nope start from begin for another 30+min, no thanks.

Had this happen twice the same night and gave up and haven’t been back.

If you’re on EU and you have trouble with Mordy, I’ll team up with you and help you (not in challenge mode though).

Moira Shalaar.5620:

Gahzirra.8639:

Mordremoth the DPS Sponge!! I just tried to do this and failed and I hated the fight so much I haven’t gone back.

It wasn’t that it was so hard but that it’s so long and stupid mechanics. I had him almost beat, almost always full health, when I went into the 3rd glide stage and was hit with a rock and downed into the damage field…DEAD.

So I hit retry thinking it would simply be continued like others….nope start from begin for another 30+min, no thanks.

Had this happen twice the same night and gave up and haven’t been back.

go with a friend.
die before the combat ( so you ll be sure to complete the achievements ).

ps: just not for the difficulty of the encounter, but for the time you have to spend not to achieve victory, but to reach the stage you need.

It’s bad as other instanced zones when you need to wait 30 mins before the part you need.

The thing that annoys me in solo story missions is that if there’s an NPC that could resurrect you, they often don’t, instead preferring to uselessly attack whatever mobs there are. Very frustrating.

In fact, whenever I die in a story mission I have to wait patiently to respawn, and since respawning has no effect except damaging some armour anyway, I’d much prefer a “give up” button that lets me respawn faster instead of having to wait – just for story instances.

I wish more bosses (And actually, fights in general) worked like Mordremoth. When I get downed in an instance, I know the encounter was designed to be beaten within a single life. I’d rather have the opportunity to try again to rise to the offered challenge.

Checkpoints should be checkpoints – and reset the fight to the point it started. Not just an extra run at the battle as you left it off.

A lot of us enjoy the more “epic” feel a tougher boss here and there adds to the storyline. I really don’t think many of the bosses are that difficult. Mordremoth is the odd man out because you can’t gear or build your way through the pass/fail mechanics. But I understand they added some sort of bypass mechanic for this phase?

You can’t please everyone. I’m sure even the least combat-oriented players among us don’t find all or even most of the storyline bosses impossible to solo. There are just a few standouts. But chances are there is a build that will get you through it. Hint: None of the storyline bosses are a DPS race (or at least not one that requires a glass build). Use a tankier build to ignore much of the damage.

I guess what I’m saying is that if you can clear most of the story without issue and without making any significant changes to the way you play, it’s better for you to make some changes for those bosses that do give you trouble than to request that the game change for you. Again, I only say this because many of us derive enjoyment out of the tougher boss battles in an otherwise boring (combat-wise) story. But, of course, you’re welcome to your own opinion.

Heyas!

Bosses I found to be hard for solo:

. Caudecuous (probably spelling his name wrong, sorry!)
. The two dogs on the last mission of episode 5 of LWS3
. Mordremonth, of course

Also I play as thief

I completed the full LS3 story during last weeks with my minion master necro and with my guardian. Did everything solo and first time without spoilers so I had no idea what to expect.

I don’t like boss fights at all, not in GW2, not in any game. They are always too repetitive and take too long, halfway through I get bored. Yeah, I did that already once, twice, why I have to do it 20 times? Just because it goes on forever, does not make the battle more interesting. There is also a problem of GW2 story episodes being too long and having too many steps before the final boss.

Now, LS3 bosses each had special mechanic you MUST do. It is not something you can ignore and attack normally. It is required. It is also not always very clear what you are suppose to do when fight starts, I had to read/look up hints and tips for several boss fights. Yet, the fights itself were not too difficult. Annoying, yes. Too long, certainly. But not specially challenging once the “special thing” is clear.

One thing that might help is to prepare tankier char with lots of healing. LS3 bosses really do not care about your dps, they are more about not getting hit and using the mechanics each boss teached you. I would also strongly suggest remapping that “special action” key to something more usable and keep prepared to whack it constantly.

I was actually pleasantly surprised with LS3 story fights, as I normally am so bad at these but all were completely soloable with first attempt. Getting all the achievements would obviously require a group, but that is to be expected.

Moira Shalaar.5620:

Gahzirra.8639:

Mordremoth the DPS Sponge!! I just tried to do this and failed and I hated the fight so much I haven’t gone back.

It wasn’t that it was so hard but that it’s so long and stupid mechanics. I had him almost beat, almost always full health, when I went into the 3rd glide stage and was hit with a rock and downed into the damage field…DEAD.

So I hit retry thinking it would simply be continued like others….nope start from begin for another 30+min, no thanks.

Had this happen twice the same night and gave up and haven’t been back.

I have this happening all the time and with much less hard content than this. I have a disability that hampers my reaction time (among other things) so you can imagine how i do at fights like these (and jumping puzzles, and other stuff). It is so bad i gave up doing group content in WoW because i was always standing in the green/red/purple/fire/whatever and died a lot.

And you know how people are about ‘carrying’ other players. So lamo here got kicked so often (even after explaining and even during explaining) that i simply gave up and restrict myself to whatever i can solo. That is why i love GW2 so much… you are in a group without beeing in a group

Back to the case at hand. Many fights are a mess because half the time you have no idea what to do. You muddle through and at some point the fight throws you out (dead) and you have to start again. Often resulting in skipping for the day and try again fresh tomorrow. No needs to consume all of my favorite passtime in one go, right?

But then, that has always been the case with dungeons i guess. Its just trial and error. You get chewed out, go back in and try again until you can dream it and by then it looks easy and you wonder why it looked so hard when you started.

It was always like this in dungeons in WoW when i first started that game. And at that time it was an accepted learning process.

But i guess these days people want everything instantly and call every single repeat of everything ‘boring’. But what they mean is that they can’t stand it that they can’t beat it in one go, for whatever ‘ego’ or ‘gogogo’ reasons.

In my humble opinion, if you want effortless story progress you should probably stick to books and movies, no offense

I killed Mordremoth on session 3 on the second day. I really couldn’t let him get away with killing my friends and in hindsight he wasn’t so tough after all.

PS: A big thanks to ArenaNet for NOT having to pay for gear repairs..
(In ur face Blizzard)

I soloed Personal Story, Season 2, Season 3, and HoT with all my classes and not once did I have any problems with the bosses and mobs. The first time was a kittenallenging trying to figure out the mechanics but that is the fun part.

If you’re struggling then you really need to learn 2 play cause the game is already easy as it is.

Here are my tips:
Use your Control/Support/Damage skills while moving and dodging from incoming attacks. Change your build based to approach different situations easier and have fun.
Remember practice makes you better in this game.

Dont forget to swap weapons in mid-combat!!! Very important!

Hupsel.1920:

Heyas!

Bosses I found to be hard for solo:

. Caudecuous (probably spelling his name wrong, sorry!)
. The two dogs on the last mission of episode 5 of LWS3
. Mordremonth, of course

Also I play as thief

What equipment do you have on you? if you are running anything that doesnt provide defense you may want to switch over to something like say Soldiers, or Knights, both those provide a mix of offense and defense and may help.

Hupsel.1920:

Hey guys

Loving the game as always, looking forward to the expansion. I am finally playing through Living World season 3 and there is a lot of content there, so congrats and thanks for that! There is one problem, though, which has plagued many missions in Guild Wars 2.

Story missions, especially those with bosses, are way too hard or unfair for solo players.

Yeah, yeah, this is a MMO and blablabla but I bet there are tons of players out there that queue alone and try the story missions. It sucks that a lot of bosses can destroy you so fast. I think that some of them would be okay for 2-3 players but in solo play you just hit your head against the wall, respawn and go at it again. The design is so bad that it doesn´t matter if you die – you can respawn, the boss has the same health as before then you just continue fighting it, dying and repeating.

I think some mobs could be scaled down for single player play and a lot of bosses could do less damage – maybe even as far as 40-50% less damage.

Thanks!

Every boss in LS3 has mechanics, some mechanics you have to master to be able to kill it, while usually theres another mechanic that can aid you in killing it very fast. On top of this you need to be on the lookout for what kills you, what attacks hurts, the patterns. Thats how you become better as a player, than slamming your head towards the boss without trying to understand the fight.

Instead of the boss being a HP-sponge, it requires you to think and act, and the mechanics are simple, but hard if you dont accept them.

But you always have the option to do them with someone, put up a lfg note.

Hupsel.1920:

Hey guys

Loving the game as always, looking forward to the expansion. I am finally playing through Living World season 3 and there is a lot of content there, so congrats and thanks for that! There is one problem, though, which has plagued many missions in Guild Wars 2.

Story missions, especially those with bosses, are way too hard or unfair for solo players.

Yeah, yeah, this is a MMO and blablabla but I bet there are tons of players out there that queue alone and try the story missions. It sucks that a lot of bosses can destroy you so fast. I think that some of them would be okay for 2-3 players but in solo play you just hit your head against the wall, respawn and go at it again. The design is so bad that it doesn´t matter if you die – you can respawn, the boss has the same health as before then you just continue fighting it, dying and repeating.

I think some mobs could be scaled down for single player play and a lot of bosses could do less damage – maybe even as far as 40-50% less damage.

Thanks!

its not a ‘blablabla’ mmo, it is in fact designed to be a game played with other people. In saying that, many people solo the stories easily, and obviously its perfectly easy with groups, so you have lots of choices – learn the fight, watch videos, experiment with builds, play with others, smash your face against it endlessly until you crack it, leave it until you are more skilled. No different from any other challenge in a mmo game. The game design does not have to change to suit your exact desires at a particular moment in time, you just need to pick how you want to tackle a problem you are having, and thats what makes games pleasurable, when you crack a challenge without needing to cheat/nerf.

Hupsel.1920:

Hey guys

Loving the game as always, looking forward to the expansion. I am finally playing through Living World season 3 and there is a lot of content there, so congrats and thanks for that! There is one problem, though, which has plagued many missions in Guild Wars 2.

Story missions, especially those with bosses, are way too hard or unfair for solo players.

Yeah, yeah, this is a MMO and blablabla but I bet there are tons of players out there that queue alone and try the story missions. It sucks that a lot of bosses can destroy you so fast. I think that some of them would be okay for 2-3 players but in solo play you just hit your head against the wall, respawn and go at it again. The design is so bad that it doesn´t matter if you die – you can respawn, the boss has the same health as before then you just continue fighting it, dying and repeating.

I think some mobs could be scaled down for single player play and a lot of bosses could do less damage – maybe even as far as 40-50% less damage.

Thanks!

Hi Hupsel, Sorry I missed the beginning of this thread so I could give you props and tell you that even tho a lot of people will be rude and respond with L2P, there are a lot of people who have similar issues to you. I have been playing GW2 since Beta and I completely agree about the Story boss fights.

Honestly, I can’t agree with the OP either. I’ve some of the bosses to be challenging but none of them were all that complicated to defeat. I also play a druid so I’ve got a massive amount of regen should I need it.

Ariurotl.3718:

I’m not being an ELITIST here, I’m a pretty poor player, but I have to disagree. None of the bosses caused me much trouble other than Caudecus (due to the camera and awful AoE bloodstone-throwing mechanics) and Aerin (because screw all this Zephyrite jumping nonsense). If I can beat them, then almost anyone can.

So, you say you are a pretty poor player but you thought the bosses were fine. What do you think this says to the people who are having trouble? And “If I can beat them, then almost anyone can” – so those who report difficulty are liars?

Ariurotl.3718:

I hate to say L2P, but what are you gonna do?

P.S. Don’t deck your chars in Berserker gear if you have trouble. Toughness and Vitality are the best friends for bad players such as you and I.

I play the stories with a Warrior with Soldier armor and traited with regeneration and a few condi-cleanse. I did not complete any boss stories unless my friends happened to do them with me. I recruited their help to finish HoT so I could do a Legendary.

Answers like this are simply not helpful. What if I was in a college group and said I found Calculus difficult? I doubt anyone would have trouble understanding that some people are better at Math than others. I don’t know why people have SO MUCH difficulty understanding that the same can be true of anything.

If changing character’s build to be tanky isn’t enough GW2 have also stats wich aren’t berserker and viper, to increase survivability.

Not having to visit class trainers to respec is one of the best things GW2 have, use it!

Djinn.9245:

Ariurotl.3718:

I’m not being an ELITIST here, I’m a pretty poor player, but I have to disagree. None of the bosses caused me much trouble other than Caudecus (due to the camera and awful AoE bloodstone-throwing mechanics) and Aerin (because screw all this Zephyrite jumping nonsense). If I can beat them, then almost anyone can.

So, you say you are a pretty poor player but you thought the bosses were fine. What do you think this says to the people who are having trouble? And “If I can beat them, then almost anyone can” – so those who report difficulty are liars?

Ariurotl.3718:

I hate to say L2P, but what are you gonna do?

P.S. Don’t deck your chars in Berserker gear if you have trouble. Toughness and Vitality are the best friends for bad players such as you and I.

I play the stories with a Warrior with Soldier armor and traited with regeneration and a few condi-cleanse. I did not complete any boss stories unless my friends happened to do them with me. I recruited their help to finish HoT so I could do a Legendary.

Answers like this are simply not helpful. What if I was in a college group and said I found Calculus difficult? I doubt anyone would have trouble understanding that some people are better at Math than others. I don’t know why people have SO MUCH difficulty understanding that the same can be true of anything.

Actually those answers are helpful. Because if enough people feel that way, then someone could figure out that maybe they’re not playing well, and they could learn to play better. Not everyone is going to feel that way, obvoiusly. Some people will claim they absolutely can’t improve their play or learn to do it.

But then you have the issue, make something simple enough for the bottom percentage and a bigger percentage of people at the top will find it boring

There’s always going to be someone that cant’ do a boss, or can’t do a mission. You can’t keep making the game easier and easier because someone says they can’t do it. You have to look at the percentages of people who can’t.

So if a player can’t solo things that 90% of the playerbase can, I’m not sure that’s an issue for the devs. If they made these things easier, it would harm the game from other peoples’ point of view.

tldr; You can’t please everyone.

Hupsel.1920:

Caudecuous (probably spelling his name wrong, sorry!)
. The two dogs on the last mission of episode 5 of LWS3
. Mordremonth, of course

First thing I do when going solo in story instances on my Thief is to take Unhindered Combatant trait. It’s one of the most amazing traits for open world pve too. It makes all the fights so much easier.

Having no reliable ranged weapon as a Thief is annoying when you fight the two dogs. The strategy I used on my Thief is to burst them down using my Staff because they die fairly quickly and evade their ranged attacks to recover health. Unhindered Combatant helps immensely by making your dodge longer and giving you swiftness. You can move around them, avoiding their aoe attacks, while recovering health, then jump into the fray and hit them hard, then start dodging around again. Rinse -repeat til they are dead, then use the mechanic of the fight to dispose of them. If you want to play it safer then use a shortbow, combined with UC to avoid their attacks and the fight becomes really easy.

For Caudecus, again get UC, it will allow you to move around and avoid his attacks. Second, focus on the adds and ignore the boss itself until all the adds are dead, then throw crystals on him to break his shield. When he is charging for you, use dodges again (with UC it should be fine) to avoid him til he goes back to the shield phase. Rinse-repeat til he is dead.

Mordremoth is similar but there are other things that make that fight harder, like missing the updrafts. Having 3 dodges + swiftness helps once again to reach the updrafts faster. There is a vine near the south side of the arena that allows you to stand there and pretty much avoid all his attacks, use it if you are injured and your heal is on cooldown. Get on the vine, and recover all your health before jumping back in for another round. When the adds spawn ignore Mordy and focus the adds, UC should help you recover from the annoying cripple spam of Mordremoth’s aoe line attack.

Thanks for being so specific. Now we can provide actual help.

Dante.1763:

I…i want to know what bosses you are having trouble with?

The only one ive so far needed help with is the final battle with mordremoth due to their stupid prison idea which i kittening hate. Im also running a full vipers/sinister, so i have no defense. Theyve also nerfed them a bit already, both the core story(which has been nerfed really hard) and HoT.

There is only one toon I’ve been able to go from beginning to end with little help but I still needed help at the end.

Other than that one toon, there’s no way I can do most of it without help. LFG is a joke for this kind of thing so one ends up begging in maps – I’ve done it and I’ve helped dozens and dozens who have no one else to play with either and would have preferred to finish the story ‘alone’ to feel accomplished, but nooooooo.

If you’re talking about that one particular living story final boss battle where you fight in that small circular Caudecus room, I agree. That one was a complete kittenfest where you were downed constantly and don’t have enough space to do anything.

(I believe they toned it down at some point though)

atheria.2837:

Dante.1763:

I…i want to know what bosses you are having trouble with?

The only one ive so far needed help with is the final battle with mordremoth due to their stupid prison idea which i kittening hate. Im also running a full vipers/sinister, so i have no defense. Theyve also nerfed them a bit already, both the core story(which has been nerfed really hard) and HoT.

There is only one toon I’ve been able to go from beginning to end with little help but I still needed help at the end.

Other than that one toon, there’s no way I can do most of it without help. LFG is a joke for this kind of thing so one ends up begging in maps – I’ve done it and I’ve helped dozens and dozens who have no one else to play with either and would have preferred to finish the story ‘alone’ to feel accomplished, but nooooooo.

Yep, it shouldn’t be so hard to participate in the GW2 Story.

People who answer this type of thread that “Anet can’t keep making the game easier” – I’m not sure that anyone in these threads is asking for the entire game to be easier. What I see, and what I personally wish, is that the STORY bosses were easier. I play GW2 for the story and it boggles my mind that Anet, who goes to the trouble of creating this rich story, is OK with a large percentage of their players never fully experiencing it.

Djinn.9245:

People who answer this type of thread that “Anet can’t keep making the game easier” – I’m not sure that anyone in these threads is asking for the entire game to be easier. What I see, and what I personally wish, is that the STORY bosses were easier. I play GW2 for the story and it boggles my mind that Anet, who goes to the trouble of creating this rich story, is OK with a large percentage of their players never fully experiencing it.

I never said that. I did however say that they had nerfed the story quite a bit already. Both Core and HoT. The problem is, is that just as many find the game to be to easy. I did have problems playing through the story when it first came, however, i changed my build until i felt comfortable playing full DPS again, learned the instance, and the bosses. Yesterday while replaying a story for an achievement i soloed a boss that a year ago when HoT came out i needed a full party of five to just barely be able to defeat.

If something feels too difficult, it’s not necessarily because it’s too hard or unfair, it also might be a sign that you need to look at your build and gear and pay attention to what your skills do.

Tune the charater a bit, practice the fight a couple of times, and suddenly it might become less hard, and might even feel like something when you finally win.

My dad has this problem. He did all right through the personal story of the core game, but he has really struggled since the Heart of Thorns expansion. A lot of the missions, he can’t do without help. He’s in his 60’s, and, other than GW2, all his games are click-to-move games like Diablo 2, Age of Empires, ect. He used click-to-move in GW1 as well.
GW2 is his first WASD movement game, and he struggles to use the keys and mouse to maneuver his character to strafe and dodge around enemies. He’s played the game fairly actively since launch, and while he has improved a lot, he’s never going to have the ease a lot of other players do with maneuvering.
I think there are some players out there like my dad, who struggle this way. Perhaps it would be an option to add an “Easy Mode” option to story instances. For those players who just can’t do it on “Normal Mode”, and who can’t get or don’t want a party, it would be helpful.

Weindrasi.3805:

My dad has this problem. He did all right through the personal story of the core game, but he has really struggled since the Heart of Thorns expansion. A lot of the missions, he can’t do without help. He’s in his 60’s, and, other than GW2, all his games are click-to-move games like Diablo 2, Age of Empires, ect. He used click-to-move in GW1 as well.
GW2 is his first WASD movement game, and he struggles to use the keys and mouse to maneuver his character to strafe and dodge around enemies. He’s played the game fairly actively since launch, and while he has improved a lot, he’s never going to have the ease a lot of other players do with maneuvering.
I think there are some players out there like my dad, who struggle this way. Perhaps it would be an option to add an “Easy Mode” option to story instances. For those players who just can’t do it on “Normal Mode”, and who can’t get or don’t want a party, it would be helpful.

I completely agree. It doesn’t make sense to have the main story of the game locked away behind boss battles that many people find too difficult to complete. We’re not talking about Dungeons, or Fractals, or Raids, or open-world bosses. We’re talking the STORY. People can talk about “killing dragons should be hard” but I say that killing dragons should be impossible for a single person. No, you can’t say “but we had our party of NPC friends”. I don’t know about anyone else but those NPCs have rarely been helpful in the fights. Most of the time the only help I get from them is a res. But they’re usually not even that helpful. So we’re talking about a single character beating these bosses. Ridiculous in the first place so who cares if people can complete it easier?

For Mordremoth, it is said that the main physical fight is what Dragon Stand meta is supposed to be. Then the “mind” fight doesn’t really need to be that difficult. You are just keeping him distracted while the physical fight happens.

But again, I’m not asking Anet to nerf the boss fights for everyone. Providing an “easy mode” would actually be better for everyone. They wouldn’t have to nerf the “normal” fights at all so people who enjoy difficulty could have it.

Thanks for the replies guys! And like Djinn said it´s not about all the content that is way too hard. Usually all the way up to the final boss it´s a really fun and challenging run. But for solo players it can get really hard and frustating (well at least for me). Caudecuous was a cool setup but then when you get AoEd like crazy and just respawn and go at it again over and over it can get a little tedious and lose a lot of charm. Also Mordremonth is really hard to go solo (maybe it was designed this way I think since he is the last boss after all).

Djinn.9245:

Ariurotl.3718:

I’m not being an ELITIST here, I’m a pretty poor player, but I have to disagree. None of the bosses caused me much trouble other than Caudecus (due to the camera and awful AoE bloodstone-throwing mechanics) and Aerin (because screw all this Zephyrite jumping nonsense). If I can beat them, then almost anyone can.

So, you say you are a pretty poor player but you thought the bosses were fine. What do you think this says to the people who are having trouble? And “If I can beat them, then almost anyone can” – so those who report difficulty are liars?

Ariurotl.3718:

I hate to say L2P, but what are you gonna do?

P.S. Don’t deck your chars in Berserker gear if you have trouble. Toughness and Vitality are the best friends for bad players such as you and I.

I play the stories with a Warrior with Soldier armor and traited with regeneration and a few condi-cleanse. I did not complete any boss stories unless my friends happened to do them with me. I recruited their help to finish HoT so I could do a Legendary.

Answers like this are simply not helpful. What if I was in a college group and said I found Calculus difficult? I doubt anyone would have trouble understanding that some people are better at Math than others. I don’t know why people have SO MUCH difficulty understanding that the same can be true of anything.

You mean answers like (paraphrased), " I too am bad at math. I suggest studying hard. Here are some suggestions of things that helped me improve my scores in the subject. Perhaps they can help you too." ?

Ashen.2907:

Djinn.9245:

Ariurotl.3718:

I’m not being an ELITIST here, I’m a pretty poor player, but I have to disagree. None of the bosses caused me much trouble other than Caudecus (due to the camera and awful AoE bloodstone-throwing mechanics) and Aerin (because screw all this Zephyrite jumping nonsense). If I can beat them, then almost anyone can.

So, you say you are a pretty poor player but you thought the bosses were fine. What do you think this says to the people who are having trouble? And “If I can beat them, then almost anyone can” – so those who report difficulty are liars?

Ariurotl.3718:

I hate to say L2P, but what are you gonna do?

P.S. Don’t deck your chars in Berserker gear if you have trouble. Toughness and Vitality are the best friends for bad players such as you and I.

I play the stories with a Warrior with Soldier armor and traited with regeneration and a few condi-cleanse. I did not complete any boss stories unless my friends happened to do them with me. I recruited their help to finish HoT so I could do a Legendary.

Answers like this are simply not helpful. What if I was in a college group and said I found Calculus difficult? I doubt anyone would have trouble understanding that some people are better at Math than others. I don’t know why people have SO MUCH difficulty understanding that the same can be true of anything.

You mean answers like (paraphrased), " I too am bad at math. I suggest studying hard. Here are some suggestions of things that helped me improve my scores in the subject. Perhaps they can help you too." ?

I was talking about being inherently better at something. Sorry you didn’t understand, I’ll try to be more specific in the future. I’m not going to “study” for a game – I play for enjoyment, not to do homework.