Guild Wars 2

Currently the game’s difficulty seems to flatline right out of the gate. Killing a mob at level 1 is just as difficult as killing a mob at level 80. A couple of things lead to this that I would like to talk about:

1. Equipment improvement. Basic < Ascended
2. Skill.
3. Insufficient downscaling.

All of these things keep the difficulty balance level as the game progresses, which isn’t neccessarily a good thing. As you play a game, it should get more difficult as you approach that ‘end boss’.

Think of Guild Wars 1 and the Domain of Anguish. Going there was a huge risk! It was difficult and getting stomped made you think what you could do better, you re-evaluated, and attempted again. Now think of Guild Wars 2. I don’t feel threatened by anything in Orr. I don’t feel endangered at any moment or approach any foe any differently than any other.

Now, there have been and are things to try to keep those in balance; but, in my opinion, they’re not enough. It’s not one thing in general that makes it a consistent plateau of difficulty, but rather, everything together. Let’s quickly talk about the few points above.

Equipment: When I want to play with my friends, who are new. I often find myself buying basic gear to equip instead of my ascended just so my character is weaker. With ascended equipment, reguardless of stats, it’s so easy to just 1 shot everything and ruin all the fun. I even run without traits to increase the difficulty.

Skill: New players don’t have as much skill as older players, obviously. You can be that guy that is skilled out the gate and roll through content, or be that guy who’s skill gradualy improves as you play. But, you’re not forced to use any of it later on. You should but don’t have to dodge anything if you don’t want to. You feel comfortable knowing there is a way point 10steps away, there’s no consequence for dying, and you probably will not be 1 shot by anything.

Downscaling: Areas are divided into a suggested level range i.e. 15-25. When you join as any level higher you’re scaled to the highest possible level, 25 in this case. At level 25 in a 15-25 area you feel pretty powerful. If you try to damage a much higher level foe, you don’t do any damage. A little higher, you do reduced damage. I find myself doing personal story steps 4-5 levels below the recommended level just to make it a challenge.

So what could be done to even this out?
All these things really go together. Instead of being downscaled to 25, maybe at level 50 downscale to 20? At level 80 downscale to 15? You equipment stats will be reduced, but your skill wont. This requires you to use that skill you’ve accumulated. The game is fine with low level areas being easy, but as you progress so should the difficulty. Enemies near the end should hit way harder than they do, force you to dodge, and make you afraid to die. Maybe scaling foes +25% in every way would do this? Maybe, following the living story, nearly all the way points should be removed? Maybe the rewards for these difficult areas should be increased? Maybe create invunerable orrian tentacles that burst from the ground unexpectantly and randomly that deal slow, avoidable, 1 hit k.o. damage? I mean how cool would that be.

What would you do to increase the games difficulty?

ANET just released a patch that turned the phrase “too overwhelming to new players” into a running gag. Do you really think that what you are asking for is in line with their current design direction? There’s people who complain on the forums about being unable to do Personal Story missions due to their high difficulty and those are the players who are smart enough to navigate to the forums, so they’re already part of the “veteran mmo community”. The majority of the players has never entered a dungeon or visited the forums, yet they appear to pay the bills.
I agree with your complaints but I think this is futile.

Don’t forget, mob design is also quite bad.

For 99% of PvE content, only DPS is viable (Mobs die in 1-3 seconds when DPS builds are used, thus the mobs never have chance to deal damage or use any abilities), 1/3 of builds so to speak.

For 1% of PvE, which consists of boss monsters who never allow their battles to end in less than minute, 2/3 of builds are more viable, while DPS builds begin to suffer from short comings, because of their aim to kill the foe before they deal damage.

2/3 of builds are designed for “Long duration combat”, where mobs don’t die in 1-3 seconds. Usually, when used in group events, those builds can just barely deal any damage, when berserkers kill everything in 1-3 seconds. (Conditions need more time to deal dmg, Control prevents action, Healing assists damage resistance in a way and Boon/Condition Manipulations will provide advantages for long run)

What GW2 PvE now lacks, is the engaging combat mechanics that they so advertised…
Alot of combat mechanics are in disuse, no need to dodge, use utilities or keep on moving…
If you can kill the mobs before they deal any damage or use their abilities.