Guild Wars 2

The game is mostly done solo. The only grouping you’ll do is in dungeons and even then, it’s very shallow because of the lack of distinct roles and the poorly designed skill system. The personal story is pretty much solo as well, no group missions like in GW1. Grouping is pretty much a novelty feature in this game. So yeah, mostly alone. When you do manage to find other people in the open world, though, they’ll just zerg the closest event with you and then run away. Not much to it, it’s the most impersonal and shallow experience i’ve ever had in MMO gaming.

cool post. you want a multiplayer mmo go play final fantasy. where everything you do will require a party. youll probably complain about that too saying theres not enough solo content

I swear to god, there was a thread last week about this game not being solo friendly or something stupid like that.

i wish these forums would make up there minds ><

I guess you don’t count WvW. I guess the guild I"m in all play alone, and we never group up and have no fun. Who knew?

/sarcasm

Holyblesserx.7618:

cool post. you want a multiplayer mmo go play final fantasy.

….okay, as silly as the OP’s post is, you realize your response is even more ridiculous, right?

What do you think “MMO” stands for? Because last I checked it stood for Massive Multiplayer Online.

critickitten.1498:

Holyblesserx.7618:

cool post. you want a multiplayer mmo go play final fantasy.

….okay, as silly as the OP’s post is, you realize your response is even more ridiculous, right?

What do you think “MMO” stands for? Because last I checked it stood for Massive Multiplayer Online.

I guess my post went over your head like a kufee.

changed guild to play together more with people.
and it worked 8-)

but i agree, if you want you can solo most standard pve content.

Holyblesserx.7618:

I guess my post went over your head like a kufee.

No, your post just didn’t make any sense.

Unless you’re going to try and pretend it was “sarcastic”, in which case I’d remind you that sarcasm doesn’t exactly translate well through text.

critickitten.1498:

Holyblesserx.7618:

I guess my post went over your head like a kufee.

No, your post just didn’t make any sense.

Unless you’re going to try and pretend it was “sarcastic”, in which case I’d remind you that sarcasm doesn’t exactly translate well through text.

no. the purpose was final fantasy puts heavy emphasis in multiplayer gameplay….guild wars is more casual therefore allows you to progress without a party. which is convenient and optional

Yes the majority is soloable and thats a good thing but its not entirely solo able. I am hoping at some point they will complete the job and make all content solo able including dungeons

I think the OP is leaning towards the topic that has been brought up many times and continues to be true. GW2 does a very por job of helping people get together. This is true regardless of being in a guild or not.

You shouldn’t be forced into joining guilds, but guilds should have the tools to make joining one worth it. As it is, you’re still pretty solo in guilds too. It’s like being in a party. You need a party for dungeon runs, but not for anything else. The party provides no benefit.

GW2 is a very lonely game tbh.

Holyblesserx.7618:

no. the purpose was final fantasy puts heavy emphasis in multiplayer gameplay….guild wars is more casual therefore allows you to progress without a party. which is convenient and optional

You mean to say that GW2 is “more casual”.

Because GW1 put a heavy emphasis on party mechanics, designing all of its content to be run with 4-8 players. You could run it with AI (henchmen at first, and eventually heroes), but the AI wasn’t always very good, so that was an option best left to skilled players.

That’s not to say that GW1 did it better, in fact I hated having to count on other people to save me on a regular basis and prefer having some control over my own destiny….but to claim that the franchise has always been about “casual” solo play is false.

lothefallen.7081:

The game is mostly done solo. The only grouping you’ll do is in dungeons

I think the right way to say it, is you can play the game solo in everything but dungeons. I play 95% of my time in a group.

NovaBlast Shockwave.5164:

Yes the majority is soloable and thats a good thing but its not entirely solo able. I am hoping at some point they will complete the job and make all content solo able including dungeons

I’d be happy if they at least made story mode solo-able. I wouldn’t mind finishing the main story at some point on my characters.

critickitten.1498:

Holyblesserx.7618:

no. the purpose was final fantasy puts heavy emphasis in multiplayer gameplay….guild wars is more casual therefore allows you to progress without a party. which is convenient and optional

You mean to say that GW2 is “more casual”.

Because GW1 put a heavy emphasis on party mechanics, designing all of its content to be run with 4-8 players. You could run it with AI (henchmen at first, and eventually heroes), but the AI wasn’t always very good, so that was an option best left to skilled players.

That’s not to say that GW1 did it better, in fact I hated having to count on other people to save me on a regular basis and prefer having some control over my own destiny….but to claim that the franchise has always been about “casual” solo play is false.

yes gw2

The game may not require you to party all the time but it’s great at getting you to naturally interact and cooperate with other players during events and such.

This is how more MMOs should be. Less “single-player + parties” more “everyone is always in your party”

you’re only a hermit as you want/allow yourself to be. I’ve made friends online especially in wvw simply by being friendly, helping out, joining in the discussions in /map, etc.

I’ve had a far, FAR more social gaming experience in GW2 than, say, GW1. In GW1, I felt I was answered by the gods when I managed to find a group that wasn’t doing a B/P Tombs run (I played a Ranger). Virtually every mission was a GW2 equivalent of a dungeon run where Rangers weren’t particularly welcomed. The Heroes were a godsend because they allowed me to complete missions that were either impossible (unless you can micro-manage like a boss) or very difficult with Henchmen. In GW2, aside from certain dungeons and Fractals, I’ve had much, much more interaction with others, either as help or being helped.

Shrug

It is not hard to find some online buddies via this game. All it takes is…wait for it….’hey mate you wanna do this on a more frequent basis?

The problem is, majority of players prefer not to engange in finding online buddies. What ever the reason may be, there is plenty of group-based activities within this game.

Oh look another compliant thread by lothefallen and one’s again he seems to be in the minority in his way of thinking because fact is he just looks for things to hate, even if what he says is true on some microscopic level he will blow it out of proportion just to make this game look like it sucks.

your not good with haveing options are you OP. according to you the game needs to Force us into role’s it need’s to force us into groups, it needs to force us to play one of said role’s at a time. it needs to force us in a direction.

did you ever stop and think…. maby thats not what GW2 is about.

and as for needing to group… no… no I don’t need to but it make’s my life easyer me and my guild often do world activities together and we also suply each other with food, tools like sharpining stones, and we are extramly good at useing combow fields together.

as such we all have Build that are built for grouping and playing off each other, oh an even though i do participate in combat I’m still THE FREAKING HEALER!

UnderdogSMO.9428:

Oh look another compliant thread by lothefallen and one’s again he seems to be in the minority in his way of thinking because fact is he just looks for things to hate, even if what he says is true on some microscopic level he will blow it out of proportion just to make this game look like it sucks.

your not good with haveing options are you OP. according to you the game needs to Force us into role’s it need’s to force us into groups, it needs to force us to play one of said role’s at a time. it needs to force us in a direction.

did you ever stop and think…. maby thats not what GW2 is about.

and as for needing to group… no… no I don’t need to but it make’s my life easyer me and my guild often do world activities together and we also suply each other with food, tools like sharpining stones, and we are extramly good at useing combow fields together.

as such we all have Build that are built for grouping and playing off each other, oh an even though i do participate in combat I’m still THE FREAKING HEALER!

You are really added to the conversation with your insults.

This game, at least, forces you to group with people for dungeons.

You NEVER had to do that in Guild Wars. (especially once Nightfall and Heroes came out)

There was only ONE group mission that I recall in GW1. (Vizunah Square in Cantha)

You would generally either see another player with all heroes or get placed with the default NPC helpers.

The final story quest in GW2 is a dungeon. You’re forced to group with 4 other people to finish the game.

Cina Reas.6938:

UnderdogSMO.9428:

Oh look another compliant thread by lothefallen and one’s again he seems to be in the minority in his way of thinking because fact is he just looks for things to hate, even if what he says is true on some microscopic level he will blow it out of proportion just to make this game look like it sucks.

your not good with haveing options are you OP. according to you the game needs to Force us into role’s it need’s to force us into groups, it needs to force us to play one of said role’s at a time. it needs to force us in a direction.

did you ever stop and think…. maby thats not what GW2 is about.

and as for needing to group… no… no I don’t need to but it make’s my life easyer me and my guild often do world activities together and we also suply each other with food, tools like sharpining stones, and we are extramly good at useing combow fields together.

as such we all have Build that are built for grouping and playing off each other, oh an even though i do participate in combat I’m still THE FREAKING HEALER!

You are really added to the conversation with your insults.

well he keeps posting this junk. We know, we get it, he dosnt like the game. some of the fundamental design decisions in this game he wants change, but he dosnt want any thing new, he wants this game to be exactly like every other mmo.

just go look at his old post.

you say im not adding anything he hasn’t added anything new or relevant to a conversation for months

Oh… idk… its kinda like a solo game (Skyrim comes to mind) but with other people around.

Here I was looking for a missing skill point and find myself facing a Champion! Not to big of a deal – most of them drop fairly easy – however this ones HP was barely moving! Egads – do I just leave or stick it out?

Here’s where the playing with others around comes in – much to my glee a handful of other players showed up and between all of us finally beat it.

Sure, they all went on their marry way afterwards but so many times in my ‘adventuring’ I’ve ran across others fighting something or the other way around its kinda nice.

Others may wish to have a more ‘social game’ but I’m having fun with it the way it is.

The problem is that GW2 wants to appeal to both kind of players, but at the moment, there’s no reason to make a party for 95% of pve. There’s almost nothing that requires party coordenation.

Yes, anyone can make a party for the sake of it, but there’s no functional reason to do so. Maybe if dynamic events were actually hard and zerging was not a valid option, people would attempt to coordenate them and make some parties on the fly. Maybe if champions offered worthwhile reward, people would attempt to coordenate more too.

It’s cool that the game gives you the freedom to play solo. It’s not cool, however, that there’s not enough content for those who want to play in parties.

But there is a reason to party. It’s fun. That’s a reason. Me and my guild party for PVe all the time, even in lower level areas.

Events scale up when you play with people and you kill stuff faster, so you get loot faster. It’s not like waiting for a random person to show up.

Those who want to group can find groups, as I do. Those who don’t won’t. And who’s fault is that really?

Games shouldn’t force people to play together.

You have a chance to choose how you want to play. This is not a bad thing. If you want to interact with people so much, get a guild and spend all your time in a party. Nobody forbade you from doing that.

I don’t really enjoy group content outside of WvW. I wish that dungeons all had a solo option as well. The times that I have pugged dungeons, the groups tend to cheese it by bypassing it or exploiting terrain to skip it. GW2 is for the most part a “play how you want” game, and it seems most people don’t want to group as is evident by the OP. I help other players in my travels but I have no desire to make new and lasting friendships, not because I’m unsociable, but because I already have plenty of friends and have enough trouble staying in touch with all of them in game.

I really do wish they had a subterranean zone (a full zone) in GW2 that looked like a cross between Ascalonian Catacombs and the Forsaken Fortune mini-dungeon in Lornars Pass (complete with traps and puzzles). Ideally that zone would have solo sections, group sections and squad/raid sections where people would bump into each other with the possibility of grouping up for harder stuff.

I love that there’s a lot of solo content. After world completion (solo), I started doing the jumping puzzle achievements. Just finished them all today. Next I’ll do the diving/exploring ones.

I don’t like doing dungeons, and in WvW I mostly just roam.

I have found the most fun i get out of this game is when playing with others.

Even if i go off on my own to some random area, and then party up with some randoms there to do some events.

You have to be completely moronic to think this game doesn’t offer anything for players who want to play together, almost everything in the game is deliberately designed to push you toward playing with others, rather than fighting against them for mob tags, quest items etc.

If i see another player, I actively try to help them or run around with them, rather than other mmos i’d stay away and kill my own mobs for loot.

Try WvW?

It is a problem how much the game doesn’t incentivize playing PVE with others though, but they’re still looking at that.

UnderdogSMO.9428:

Oh look another compliant thread by lothefallen and one’s again he seems to be in the minority in his way of thinking because fact is he just looks for things to hate, even if what he says is true on some microscopic level he will blow it out of proportion just to make this game look like it sucks.

your not good with haveing options are you OP. according to you the game needs to Force us into role’s it need’s to force us into groups, it needs to force us to play one of said role’s at a time. it needs to force us in a direction.

did you ever stop and think…. maby thats not what GW2 is about.

and as for needing to group… no… no I don’t need to but it make’s my life easyer me and my guild often do world activities together and we also suply each other with food, tools like sharpining stones, and we are extramly good at useing combow fields together.

as such we all have Build that are built for grouping and playing off each other, oh an even though i do participate in combat I’m still THE FREAKING HEALER!

Nice grammar, first of all.

Second of all, i would like everyone that disagrees with me to tell me what depth is there in grouping in this game? Combo fields? That’s very comical.

The difficulty or engagement isn’t designed around the skill system like in GW1, that’s for sure. Grouping only adds a numerical advantage, but nothing mechanical, nothing integral to gameplay.

Sure, casual players love that, but there’s an apparent lack of depth in this game, root cause being the lack of group integrity, the lack of distinct roles, the removal of the healer paradigm, and as a result of all this, having to design encounters to be braindead zerg-fests where bosses have health bars in scientific notation and OHKO mechanics.

This is not a microscopic design flaw in the least, it’s a huge one, in fact it has caused and is causing many people to quit or otherwise pass up buying this game.

Vayne.8563:

But there is a reason to party. It’s fun. That’s a reason. Me and my guild party for PVe all the time, even in lower level areas.

Events scale up when you play with people and you kill stuff faster, so you get loot faster. It’s not like waiting for a random person to show up.

Those who want to group can find groups, as I do. Those who don’t won’t. And who’s fault is that really?

Games shouldn’t force people to play together.

Games should not force people to do anything. However, MMOs should encourage meaningful social gameplay. Zerging and throwing out homogeneous buffs by spamming skills that are balanced only by cooldowns..that’s not meaningful. The combat and group dynamic in this game is extremely shallow and without the healer paradigm, they’ve set themselves up to never be able to design much more than what you currently see. Overtuned mobs in dungeons destroying your party because you don’t have 2-3 Guardians or Warriors. The game is completely imbalanced and they have no intention of improving the combat. It’s a backdrop to the cash shop in a game built to engage small-minded players. I categorize these types of players with two words. Quaggan Backpack. There’s no depth in two dodges, a self heal button, and homogeneous DPS.

lothefallen.7081:

The combat and group dynamic in this game is extremely shallow and without the healer paradigm, they’ve set themselves up to never be able to design much more than what you currently see.

How does a healer allow them to design better encounter mechanics?

The healer’s role is to mitigate or repair damage, therefore any encounter mechanics would be designed around damage.

TheDaiBish.9735:

lothefallen.7081:

The combat and group dynamic in this game is extremely shallow and without the healer paradigm, they’ve set themselves up to never be able to design much more than what you currently see.

How does a healer allow them to design better encounter mechanics?

The healer’s role is to mitigate or repair damage, therefore any encounter mechanics would be designed around damage.

Well, first of all, it allows for mob groups that aren’t all about DPS. Some mobs for example could be healers as well. It allows more depth to combat because there is a mitigation role being fulfilled. It gives way for other players to specialize more and that in turns opens up more interesting and complex team compositions. It encourages inter-class mechanics such as the melee backlining for the healer so that the healer doesn’t die, same for DPS as well. It just opens up the platform for more depth in the skill design when you can actually give mobs mechanical difficulty without simply balancing them around being solo-able. With that in mind, grouping becomes more advantageous, although, ideally for this game, not completely necessary 100% of the time. I could write a dissertation on the concepts and systems that go along with the reasoning, but suffice to say, this would do a lot of good for the game. Maybe not a complete plus for the casual kitten crowd, but the impact of it on the current game systems would most likely be more advantageous, if done right, than negative.

lothefallen.7081:

The game is mostly done solo. The only grouping you’ll do is in dungeons

False

Dynamic events:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Group_Event#Group_events

Dungeons:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=guild+wars+2+dungeon+solo&oq=guild+wars+2+dungeon+solo&gs_l=youtube-reduced.3..0.6928.9607.0.10189.14.12.0.0.0.0.582.4722.0j1j3j1j3j4.12.0...0.0...1ac.1.Kr0I9ZrnLhA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKy67S6uvNU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn1hTSra3XI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5XZaAcfqKI

lothefallen.7081:

The game is mostly done solo. The only grouping you’ll do is in dungeons and even then, it’s very shallow because of the lack of distinct roles and the poorly designed skill system. The personal story is pretty much solo as well, no group missions like in GW1. Grouping is pretty much a novelty feature in this game. So yeah, mostly alone. When you do manage to find other people in the open world, though, they’ll just zerg the closest event with you and then run away. Not much to it, it’s the most impersonal and shallow experience i’ve ever had in MMO gaming.

Actually, if you wish to go to a higher level zone on a lower character, say 10 levels higher, if you group / party with them, it will increase your chances of getting exp / better loot due to Risk vs Reward factor. I’m not completely sure how this works now since the 11/15 patch, but prior to that, I could join a guild mate or 2 who were 10 levels higher, do the events and leave with bags full of rares only. Now of course I can only dream about 1 or 2 rares a night.

400+ Hours played, never seen an Exotic drop, not even from a chest. Still got my fingers crossed though.

Otaur.9268:

lothefallen.7081:

The game is mostly done solo. The only grouping you’ll do is in dungeons and even then, it’s very shallow because of the lack of distinct roles and the poorly designed skill system. The personal story is pretty much solo as well, no group missions like in GW1. Grouping is pretty much a novelty feature in this game. So yeah, mostly alone. When you do manage to find other people in the open world, though, they’ll just zerg the closest event with you and then run away. Not much to it, it’s the most impersonal and shallow experience i’ve ever had in MMO gaming.

Actually, if you wish to go to a higher level zone on a lower character, say 10 levels higher, if you group / party with them, it will increase your chances of getting exp / better loot due to Risk vs Reward factor. I’m not completely sure how this works now since the 11/15 patch, but prior to that, I could join a guild mate or 2 who were 10 levels higher, do the events and leave with bags full of rares only. Now of course I can only dream about 1 or 2 rares a night.

400+ Hours played, never seen an Exotic drop, not even from a chest. Still got my fingers crossed though.

False.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Glancing

In PvE, players who fight enemies more than 7 levels above their own level will always deal glancing blows. This discourages players from exploring and fighting in high level areas that they shouldn’t be.

I assume that the reward will be terrible.

I could argue that someone could build characters now around certain roles now, if you build around certain effects:

• Damage Mitigation – Weakness, Blind, Protection, Condition Removal, CC effects
• Movement Control – Cripple, Immobilize, Chilled
• Healing – Regen, Burst Heals

For example, I play my Warrior in this spec mostly:

• Full Control (Hammer / Mace and Mace, w/ Kick, Bull’s Charge and Shrapnel Mine, with Leg Specialist).

This allows me to give my teammates a chance to gun down from a distance, as well as keep mobs away from the team if they run into trouble, while our Water Ele helps keep me alive.

If you run with a regular group, you can easily work roles out and choose to specialise in something with the current tools.

Addressing your claim that the game is mostly a solo game: It’s only a solo game if you make it one.

It’s the difference between pugging and running a dungeon with some sort of plan. I hardly ever pug, and I never do it by choice. I play with my guildies 99% of the time. We run dungeons together and we build ourselves to play with each other. We make sure all the bases are covered. Is there enough condition removal. Do we have the right balance of damage and healing, that sort of thing. We know certain characters work better than others and we know why.

Sure we can zerg a dungeon and keep banging our heads against the wall until we get through and then pay a fortune on armor repair. We simply prefer not to do that. As we play together, we get better and better, faster and faster. We take less falls, we have less wipes.

There’s plenty of synergy to be found in this game if that’s what you’re looking for. Or you could just zerg.

I guess it’s nice that they give you a choice in the matter.

lothefallen.7081:

UnderdogSMO.9428:

Oh look another compliant thread by lothefallen and one’s again he seems to be in the minority in his way of thinking because fact is he just looks for things to hate, even if what he says is true on some microscopic level he will blow it out of proportion just to make this game look like it sucks.

your not good with haveing options are you OP. according to you the game needs to Force us into role’s it need’s to force us into groups, it needs to force us to play one of said role’s at a time. it needs to force us in a direction.

did you ever stop and think…. maby thats not what GW2 is about.

and as for needing to group… no… no I don’t need to but it make’s my life easyer me and my guild often do world activities together and we also suply each other with food, tools like sharpining stones, and we are extramly good at useing combow fields together.

as such we all have Build that are built for grouping and playing off each other, oh an even though i do participate in combat I’m still THE FREAKING HEALER!

Nice grammar, first of all.

Second of all, i would like everyone that disagrees with me to tell me what depth is there in grouping in this game? Combo fields? That’s very comical.

The difficulty or engagement isn’t designed around the skill system like in GW1, that’s for sure. Grouping only adds a numerical advantage, but nothing mechanical, nothing integral to gameplay.

Sure, casual players love that, but there’s an apparent lack of depth in this game, root cause being the lack of group integrity, the lack of distinct roles, the removal of the healer paradigm, and as a result of all this, having to design encounters to be braindead zerg-fests where bosses have health bars in scientific notation and OHKO mechanics.

This is not a microscopic design flaw in the least, it’s a huge one, in fact it has caused and is causing many people to quit or otherwise pass up buying this game.

Yup because gw1 combat was so advanced that you you could beat the hole game with a bunch of bots. >_>. Yup

Its true enough that the boss’s do infect have OHKO mechanics but in what way dose that make this game worse? There all avoidable if you have the skill and/or a team that utilizes ability’s with blind and stuns.

The only system in this game that lets combat to be a zergfest is the fact that no matter what everyone can get loot and such from the fight and it dosnt lock any one out. if the standard trinity aloud for the same they would also be zergy. I will finish this on my next brake (at work)

critickitten.1498:

Holyblesserx.7618:

I guess my post went over your head like a kufee.

No, your post just didn’t make any sense.

Unless you’re going to try and pretend it was “sarcastic”, in which case I’d remind you that sarcasm doesn’t exactly translate well through text.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XI

I tend to run with a group, but that’s made up of illusions or minions or a pet. Haha.

Apart from there, in the open world there is group content that people can definitely not do solo unless you have a lot of time, mainly being Champion events near chests. Actually most chests in the open world have either a non-soloable champion or a large mob that you need a group to take down – effective risk and reward right there.

But even with the implementation of these, most players just avoid it instead preferring to zerg quickly respawning events instead of these niche areas with one chest and a strong boss.

It’s not how the game is made, it’s how you play it. (Although sometimes certain things do have to be adjusted by the devs)

i dont even…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Solo-Dungeon-option-end-forced-grouping

Its what you make it if you play solo then it will become a solo game if you play with a team then it will become a team game. Stop looking else where when its your personally that is the answer.

I only play in groups. Get some friends op.

Aristio.2784:

critickitten.1498:

Holyblesserx.7618:

I guess my post went over your head like a kufee.

No, your post just didn’t make any sense.

Unless you’re going to try and pretend it was “sarcastic”, in which case I’d remind you that sarcasm doesn’t exactly translate well through text.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XI

I’ve already addressed this point.

Read all of the posts in a conversation before you interject into a conversation you have nothing to do with.

Pretty much yes, but it’s already been well-established. We’re only playing along side others, not actually with them.

The game desperately needs large-scale coordinated content for guilds and large groups.

Back in the days of the advent of multiplayer first-person-shooters, it was easier to find a group (just logged on to one of many populated servers), than it is now with thousands of people on the same “massively multiplayer” server.

Odd how these thinks work out, isn’t it.

I don’t think I’ve ever played solo.
Except for the personal story.