Guild Wars 2

I exceedingly rarely choose to post on forums other than to make bug reports as I regard the particulars of game mechanics to be the dev’s prerogative. I simply vote with my pocketbook — if I approve I spend money, if I don’t then I withdraw my financial support.

I am posting my opinion here merely to make my voice heard as the appearance of the “new and improved” nastier Krait and Orrian Risen troubles me. Is the uptick in open world PvE difficulty a manifestation of the dev’s choosing to cater to a different audience?

Whether it is or not is not what troubles me, as aforementioned, I regard this as their prerogative.

I am well aware that part of this game’s audience has been clamoring for increased difficulty while using adjectives such as “faceroll” to describe the current and past difficulty level of open world PvE. I have no problem with this as, after all… “different strokes for different folks”.

I will say this though: I find that real-life provides me with all the “challenge”, “difficulty”, and “hardness” I care to stomach. I pay for entertainment to relax and indeed allow me to “faceroll” as it were to my heart’s content.

Up until now the open world PvE experience in GW2 has been mostly satisfactory from my perspective but I am concerned that this is beginning to change in a manner that I find displeasing. I don’t do dungeons as I don’t find them to be a relaxing and enjoyable experience. I tried PvP and WvW and found them to be likewise not to my taste.

What I do like to do in-game is to roam the open-world exploring all the nooks and crannies. I thoroughly enjoy finding the hidden places in the beautiful world the devs have crafted. For me, the combat is a necessary evil in many ways – I do enjoy it but it is definitely not my primary focus and oftentimes is merely an obstacle to overcome so I can see what is “over there”. I don’t particularly care about loot, and I detest “farming” or “grinding”.

Up until now, GW2 has provided me with a niche that has permitted me to enjoy myself in my own fashion. I wonder if this is coming to an end…

Just so there are no mis-understandings: I am speaking out because I want the devs to know that there are folks like me in the audience for their game that do not care for the “new and improved” Krait or the fiery new Risen Pirates because they make the game less enjoyable for “us”.

The choice of what audience will be favored is for the devs to make. Just be aware that not everyone finds a good “faceroll” displeasing

TL:DR – Not everyone likes more difficult NPC’s in open world PvE. Krait and Risen were already aggravating opponents… They did not need to become more aggravating.

op, do easier regions.

a lot of player need a bit of challenging open world not to fall asleep on their keyboard.

rewards are sexier with a bit of challenge.

Avatar.1923:

op, do easier regions.

a lot of player need a bit of challenging open world not to fall asleep on their keyboard.

rewards are sexier with a bit of challenge.

I don’t care about rewards — I do, in fact, spend most of my time in low to mid-level areas. I enjoy helping newer players and whatnot… But I like to roam freely.

Sometimes this does include Orr and other “difficult” areas as it were. I’m an older person and my memory isn’t the best so if I stay out of a particular area long enough, I actually thoroughly enjoy “re-exploring” it.

So I need to roam to enjoy myself… The open-world has been very good in this way. I would not like to see it change for the worse (IMHO of course).

Edit: I did have an interesting thought while reading your reply though. I wouldn’t be so bothered by the nastier NPC’s if they would not interfere with my exploring… Unfortunately they cannot always be bypassed or avoided — and given my playstyle, I tend not to make a lot of coin so repairs/waypoints hurt a bit. In point of fact, the only time I waypoint is when I get myself killed :P

Avatar.1923:

op, do easier regions.

a lot of player need a bit of challenging open world not to fall asleep on their keyboard.

rewards are sexier with a bit of challenge.

Then let hardcore players choose to be downscaled more and rewarded a bit more, instead of forcing guys like him to avoid some zones…

Seems to me some of the scaling is off too.
Today taking Balthazaar was way too easy and by contrast I was knee deep in dead allies at the krait event near where Tequatl spawns.

thats a tough call to make.

gimping oneself is also not everybody’s cup of tea.

its a question of finding exactly the right balance.
btw, i think its not so bad as it is (after improvements).

world events are too easy, imho.
but a lot of content is fair.

As a warrior I pretty much steamrolled everywhere. As an ele I am facing trouble in the higher level zones. What am I doing wrong here?

Flamenco.3894:

As a warrior I pretty much steamrolled everywhere. As an ele I am facing trouble in the higher level zones. What am I doing wrong here?

You don’t use FOTM build.

^
yup.

for a random build, game can be much harder!
imagine a guard with spirit weapon

I agree half way with OP. I myself like to roam around a bit, and fint it sometimes a little bit tedious with all the critters that is scattered around in such a way that they will cripple me every ten seconds or so if i dont doge or avoid, but that keeps my eyes focused on the critters and i cant really enjoy the amazingly beauty of the game.
Dont get me wrong, i like fighting critters but perhaps more scattered.

One solution to this, and OP`s original post, could be to put more veterans into the world, and leave the other critters more easy to faceroll. That way we can choose to avoid the veterans and faceroll the other critters. Better loot for veterans ofc.

Some enemies have been changed but not everything. I know specifically, Krait are quite a different kettle of fish in some zones.

scinder.8315:

Some enemies have been changed but not everything. I know specifically, Krait are quite a different kettle of fish in some zones.

To some degree mayhap I should clarify why I finally have become concerned enough to post in a forum:

Indeed, only a few enemy types have been “empowered” in the recent patch. But I get the feeling that their deployment is part of an experiment on the dev’s part.

If this “experiment” is considered to be a “success”; it is my concern that this “empowerment” will then be extended to many other enemy types throughout the game.

Couple this with recent attempts to increase the harshness of character downscaling and I become truly concerned.

I don’t want open world exploration to become a source of aggravation rather than relaxation… Granted mayhap my position is a minority position with regard to the game’s audience as a whole, but it does not mean that I will continue to withhold comment hoping for the best.

In the end this is all my opinion and the dev’s will do what they will/must. I just choose to no longer remain silent in the hopes that they will be made aware of the diverse audience their work has attracted.

Finished Tequatl and heading back to the lab when suddenly BOOM!

Heh, only thing on level is the champion. The rest are 4 levels above the characters and NPCs.

Avatar.1923:

^
yup.

for a random build, game can be much harder!
imagine a guard with spirit weapon

Indeed, I tried that, but wasn’t getting the massive aoe/control/defense that Greatsword gives me. So I switched back.

The lesson here, Anet, is to balance all the professions and weapon skills so that everyone can play up to the level of the few specific “OP” builds (gsword guardian, well necro, etc) BEFORE buffing difficulty levels.

Necro wells OP? What did i miss?

Well the krait by Teq might have been because people could sit there and farm it constantly for lots of loot and never have to face dying…

As for open world getting tougher, I can kinda understand why Orr would be “hard” open world. And, for the record, I don’t like roaming in Orr. Remember, Orr is basically the enemy stronghold, so of course it’ll be a it harder to roam around in there

If some of the scalings got funky, which I wouldn’t be surprised, than just wait until the next big update, and see if it gets changed

SO, if you love roaming the open world, just remember what all the zones are. Some will be friendly, and some won’t be Orr is mostly frustrating not because the toughness of the mods, but the density of mobs, which can get silly.

The OP mentions something I have thought about a bit.

There are players, I am friends with a few, who just must say that everything is too easy. They get a thrill out of saying how “faceroll” everything is, and love to at least imply that anyone who says different is a “bad”.

There will be no pleasing these players, as they simply MUST state how easy everything is for them. It really may not be a matter of “pleasing them”. They just HAVE to say how easy everything is for them , even if it is not.

I have seen the ones I know get killed several times in an encounter…yet say how easy it was. Go figure….

It is like a forum/chat phenomenon. So simple to boast and put down others.

So…my only concern would be that devs decide this crowd is the one that must be catered to.

I suppose they have a tough job. How can you make most people happy?

Most annoying for me, areas with wierd, rapid respawn rates. Some caves where you just cannot stop killing as everything respawns REALLY fast. Great for a kill exp spree ( there is one in particualr I go to for just this)…but ultimately just tedious. Also, areas with REALLY dense enemy population, where you can’t dodge or kite without drawing more and more aggro. Just not enough room to move, and quite a factor in a game like this where dodging/evading/kiting is really a must.

Now, some will love that. I find it irritating.

So, maybe the best we can hope for, is that only some areas will be like this. So maybe there will be these areas that are not really fun for some, but fun for others.

The danger, for the game, would be making too many places where the “non-hardcore” just doesn’t want to go.

But I have seen it many times; for those who just get off on saying how easy everything is…nothing will ever be enough. At least they will never say it

OP, I see what you’re talking about but I have a problem with what you’re saying. The entire game can’t be for anyone one group of people. It can’t be for you and players like you and no one else. Nor can it be for hard core players.

I understand the desire to roam freely but you know, for a lot of people the content is too easy. There has to be balance. That is to say there should be enough hard areas for some people and enough easy areas for others. I don’t think the entire world needs to be easy or hard.

I do think that harder krait should be removed from low level zones though. Those are the places where things should be easy.

OP sorry but you’re basically asking that the entirety of GW2 zones are made into a joke, which is not acceptable.
Not everything should be “relaxing” in a combat-based game, we also need hard zones on top of the easy ones.

With a moderate amount of people, the krait are no problem. But I can see there being an issue if there are alot more people as the event scales up and becomes alot more dangerous due to the improved Krait.

Vayne.8563:

OP, I see what you’re talking about but I have a problem with what you’re saying. The entire game can’t be for anyone one group of people. It can’t be for you and players like you and no one else. Nor can it be for hard core players.

I understand the desire to roam freely but you know, for a lot of people the content is too easy. There has to be balance. That is to say there should be enough hard areas for some people and enough easy areas for others. I don’t think the entire world needs to be easy or hard.

I do think that harder krait should be removed from low level zones though. Those are the places where things should be easy.

I think you may have misunderstood my meaning so I’ll try to clarify – English is not my native language after all.

I never said the entire game should cater solely to folks like me. Nowhere in my post did I mention reducing the difficulty of dungeons, temple events, champion fights, dynamic events, etc.

I just feel that the “difficult” content should to some degree be segregated and not painted over the entire landscape with a broad brush. Challenging content has it’s place but there is no reason why navigating a visually striking region of the game should resemble picking one’s way thru a minefield. I guess if I simply had a way to avoid unwanted and needlessly “hard” encounters while simply wanting to see what is over the next hill then that might suffice. Mayhap some special open-world only escape and evasion skill that would not apply to WvW, PvP, or events but would allow ease of travel for the explorers who just enjoy the artistic beauty of the game.

I also did not say that a warzone like Orr should be “easy” — but at least don’t make casual travel thru the area aggravating.

I would never expect any game, much less an MMO to cater only to my needs and those of likeminded folks – I just ask that “our” playstyle be respected just as much as any other when changes are made.

As always, the final decision lies with the devs as this is their art, and theirs is the artist’s prerogative.

Akhellan.4180:

I just feel that the “difficult” content should to some degree be segregated and not painted over the entire landscape with a broad brush

So you want us to be segregated into a zone and the rest of the game be made into a cakewalk because you like it this way? Wow.
I’m not sure you realize this but the majority of gamers who play combat-based game love a challenge, if you want a birdwatching MMO buy Skyrim and disable the AI.

HannaDeFreitas.4236:

Akhellan.4180:

I just feel that the “difficult” content should to some degree be segregated and not painted over the entire landscape with a broad brush

So you want us to be segregated into a zone and the rest of the game be made into a cakewalk because you like it this way? Wow.
I’m not sure you realize this but the majority of gamers who play combat-based game love a challenge, if you want a birdwatching MMO buy Skyrim and disable the AI.

No – not a zone – but that difficulty spikes should more appropriately be a part of actual events as opposed to just being casually sprinkled all over the place.

For example: there are areas where hostile creatures are seemingly, literally laid out in a grid pattern. As if their sole purpose is to hinder movement. Instead there should be some logic to their placement and they should also perhaps move in a logical fashion rather than just sitting in one place acting as an obstruction.

However, mayhap you have a point: I did not see this game as one that was specifically supposed to emphasize combat over all other aspects. Mayhap I’m too old to understand the intent of the game.

I submit though that the devs seem to have gone out of their way to create a world that would appeal to a wide variety of tastes and my comments are intended to show what my peculiar tastes are.

You clearly have your tastes, and folks who appear to agree with you have been exceedingly vocal on this forum. I just wish for the devs to be aware that other perspectives exist.

Edit: I will also add that at no moment in time have I asked for combat not to be a part of the game. I enjoy the combat — I even enjoy difficult combat… But in moderation. I just want to be able to choose my battles as it were, rather than be constantly forced into them while just roaming. If I go into a fight then I expect to fight — I’m not asking for there not to be a fight during an event where you are supposed to defend someplace or somesuch.

In any case, I’ve no intention to argue with you or anyone else — If you elect to willfully misunderstand my points then further comment is pointless.

As others have said the game needs to cater for a whole spectrum of different players. My playstyle actually resembles your quite closely, but I’m of a different opinion. Most areas of the game you can do very easily, especially if you are only downscaled and not playing somewhere that is a few levels above yours.
There needs to be some zones or some areas within all zones that are a bit more challenging. While those areas shouldn’t be mandatory, they should be there to provide a challenge to anyone that desires one.
I would even go as far as making those areas a requirement on the Exploration title track so as to make it a true achievement instead of just ticking a shopping list of places you visited.

op, make friend with other people that are less good in combat, group up, and do orr.

but leaves us our challenge :/

and the game is really combat oriented, almost 100%.
we have to be realistic here. theres no sandbox elements at all, its just exploring and combat&loot.

Elitists cry there s nothing to do.
ANET gives ascended gear.
Elitists cry the game is too easy
ANET makes the game harder.
Elitists cry there s nothing to do…

Welcome to progression. Welcome to the World of Guild Wars 2.

Actually OP, I can now see, based on your response what you want, and I think that it’s not a bad thing. The problem of course is how much is “enough” for either side and how do you divide open world content into easy (cakewalk) stuff and harder more challenging content without breaking immersion completely.

See, I’m like you a lot of the time. I need to relax and just run around and coast…but I also want a challenge, and not just a dungeon challenge. Sometimes I want to find something in the open world I need to tackle. Even in an easy zone, I’d like to be challenged some of the time. I think it’s reasonable that that can happen.

But I also agree that the challenge shouldn’t be painted with, in your words, a broad brush because it would change the entire nature of the game until now.

Changing something like the krait would make certain early zones, or parts of them, very tricky indeed.

I’m also not convinced these new changes indicate a new direction for Anet. I think they’re trying to stuff, and will adjust it as time goes on…this always happens when new changes come in.

I think we should wait for the fine-tuning before we assume anything.

Karizee.8076:

Finished Tequatl and heading back to the lab when suddenly BOOM!

That DE seems to be scaling based on number of players in the general area rather than at the event itself. I tried doing it while waiting on the dragon. There were 50 people over where the dragon spawns — not doing the event. About 5 of us were doing the DE. 2nd or 3rd wave spawned, 2 Champions, plus lots of +2 to +4 regulars.

I’ve yet to figure out exactly which of the new Krait uses the AoE massive damage plus multiple conditions attack. That attack needs to be evaded or you’re looking at being downed. Might be the Hypnos, as I haven’t seen the Nimross or Damoss using it, but not sure, as I’ve yet to see a Hypnos on its lonesome.

The Risen changes seem tamer than that one Krait attack, although the Champion Abomination’s new bowling ball AoE line is nasty if you aren’t looking for it.

Easy things are not worth doing. Difficult things are worth doing. Auto attacking NPC’s to death are for the mentally challenged.

that lab event near Tequatl caught me off guard yesterday. I hadn’t done it in a while and ventured over there when I saw the DE pop up. Bam, instant death, didn’t even see any mobs due to the pve culling. When they finally rendered I saw three champions and at least 6 or 7 veterans in addition to the regular mobs. I’m all for increased difficulty but that one seems a bit excessive.

Vayne.8563:

Actually OP, I can now see, based on your response what you want, and I think that it’s not a bad thing. The problem of course is how much is “enough” for either side and how do you divide open world content into easy (cakewalk) stuff and harder more challenging content without breaking immersion completely.

See, I’m like you a lot of the time. I need to relax and just run around and coast…but I also want a challenge, and not just a dungeon challenge. Sometimes I want to find something in the open world I need to tackle. Even in an easy zone, I’d like to be challenged some of the time. I think it’s reasonable that that can happen.

But I also agree that the challenge shouldn’t be painted with, in your words, a broad brush because it would change the entire nature of the game until now.

Changing something like the krait would make certain early zones, or parts of them, very tricky indeed.

I’m also not convinced these new changes indicate a new direction for Anet. I think they’re trying to stuff, and will adjust it as time goes on…this always happens when new changes come in.

I think we should wait for the fine-tuning before we assume anything.

Outstanding!!! Thank you for posting this reply — I think you’re perfectly understanding where I’m coming from and appreciate that you have communicated this in a clearer fashion than I was able to.

-I am not asking for changes to be made to the game.

-I am merely making my perspective known in the same manner that those wishing for greater challenge/difficulty have done.

More challenging content is fine — I am merely stating my personal preferences and the hope that there will remain a niche for me in the free-form open world exploration portion of the game.

I don’t know about open world npcs, they seem as easy as they’ve always been to me, but those open world bosses certainly need a huge buff, they are such a joke now, they can be killed while being afk… That’s not better than having hard encounters

I used to run around Malchor’s and Cursed Shore everyday to gather my thingies needed for my second legendary and killed all the nice moobies in the way that tried to take my life cause they are hungry "Dinneeeerrr..! "
For me it WAS something i did everyday when i loged and then i proceed on doing other things. The day the newest patch happened i started to do the same thing as usual only to find myself running for my pixel life cause ok i can handle a bunch of zombies trying to suck my brains out, that was fun! But my stamina wasn’t enough to avoid and dodge all those red aoe circles that apparently each and everyone of them did to get me!! I barely can solo veterans at CS anymore and 4 people we failed an event were we tried to save a camp from a bunch of mobs that wiped us more than once and in the end we just left rofl.

My point , i love the game sure idc how hard they make it to obtain something or kill something lol . Not everyone is the same tho and other people get discouraged and they just dont go back at it. Sure its a game you have the freedom of choice but still the fact is a game should make it fun to do it and not something that frustrate you imo

Casual is where the big audience and where the money is. GW2 has casual written all over the place from day one and it will certainly never leave the track. And who could blame them? The gaming industry is just that, an industry, and they need to make money, the more, the better, and beside the very rare niche game, casual is the mainstream now. Look at Skyrim, the biggest single player rpg hit, a complete autosucceed piece of a joke. Fear not, if anything, GW2 will become easier and easier as time progresses. Sad, but inevitable for today´s target audience. And as MMORPG are huge projects, we will never again see a difficult one once the remaining old school games have died – it is just too much of an economical risk to cater for a niche audience.

OP has a good point, and I feel it’s a good thing to discuss here.

Not about ‘buffing the difficulty’ or ‘nerfing it to be faceroll’, but the specific circumstances being discussed (namely the Krait and the Orr undead events). Personally, I find them fun, but they are rather annoyingly hard. Those Krait especially as they toss around lots of fields that apply lots of conditions. Part of it is learning their ways of attacking, but they’re also increasingly difficult to defeat ontop of having an easier time overwhelming the player.

The events then scale up with more people to the point things just blow up before you can react and next thing you know, everyone has wiped. I honestly don’t know what to thing. I’ll just keep participating in the changes to help give the devs more data on future game alterations.

Actually, I think the reason I find it fun is because it’s new. Sudenly, there are events that don’t behave like they normally do.

In this case, I’d LOVE the devs to keep changing events, but in a more randomish fashion. Next update, the Risen and Krait are back to normal, but then the Centaurs and Branded are sudenly crazy. Then a week later, they go back to normal and then a couple other events are temporarily altered.

How would people feel about something like that?

Here’s my wall-o-text, feel free to skip it. I’m a casual player, in terms of the content I enjoy, if not in terms of hours spent in the game. Sometimes I want to be challenged a bit, but for the most part I like to roam various maps and explore, finding odd little places and enjoying the gorgeous landscape.

I’ve had a daily routine which, in its repetition, might not be “challenging” to all, but which I have found relaxing. Part of this routine was climbing the ship at Nonmoa Lake, killing the krait witch and popping the chest for the admittedly poor loot. I would then hang around for a bit and help hapless wanderers climb the ship to get the vista there, before venturing on. Another part of my routine was the Frozen Maw event series which I used to knock out the daily events quota. This is all done with now, pre-patch.

I don’t know what they did to Maw, but its participation numbers have gone through the roof. Yesterday, the boss was under 50% by the time I got from the destroyed portals to the boss. The only challenge was trying to get hits in within the 10 seconds it took for it to die. The drops were always crap, pre-patch, but at least it was fun to do, sometimes even a bit challenging. It’s a joke now.

The krait witch at Nonmoa Lake went from Gilligan to Ultron. It now spawns a bunch of friends. It truly is a group event now, and I would like to see a group of genuine level 60’s tackle her. Or even get to her, since the regular krait now spam a nice aoe poison. I can handle two at a time, but it’s no cakewalk, and anything beyond that tends to spell death. They seem to be just as ferocious underwater: the other day I saw someone try to duo the witch, they fell down poisoned into the lake and started to rally; I went down there to help them, only to escape the krait infestation very narrowly. The underwater skills are kitten now. So much for hanging out at Nonmoa, helping new players.

I originally started a Ranger, but went with Guardian instead when I realized I needed a job which could help me survive my, shall we say, less than 1337 playing style. I knew that many features, such as PVP, are more suited to more skilled and far more competitive individuals, and that is how it should be. I understand that things like dungeons are for the committed and quick who want great gear, and guild missions for the organized, big guilds. That is all cool.

As is also cool that there should be occasional bosses in the open world which take more than a slap to tackle. But I don’t think regular mobs should go, in regular open world maps, from yawn-inducing bunnies to these insanely buffed krait in the blink of an eye, much less in a pre-80 map. Having to take your life in your hands every six feet on the map isn’t challenging, it’s just annoying. I find jumping puzzles to provide a lot more actual challenge in terms of skill and coordination. You should swap gear and skills for boss encounters, but you shouldn’t have to do that just to survive random open world encounters that don’t even drop anything worthwhile most of the time.

I’m not saying ruin someone else’s fun so that I can have mine, but surely no one is now going, “hey, let’s go kill some krait at Nonmoa Lake, you know the ones that drop absolutely nothing while beating you to an inch of your life; that will be so challenging!”.

I felt that the buff on some Krait was a bit “overkill”..c’mon.. a supposedly trash mob shows up with 15 stacks of might + quickness + fury!

I wish I could this on my hero!

But I enjoyed when one of the serpentines rolled back to avoid a blow and left a trail of poison. New mechanics? Yes, I like it, and I would love to see more of that.

But changing mobs just tru piling up buffs and/or giving them every condition and CC avaliable is lazy design, imho.

As for the Risen, I still find they are more a kittenload of hp sacks than anything else. They are not fun to wack. But I like them more now, that I’m able to walk in Orr without being CC’ed all the time.

Karizee.8076:

Finished Tequatl and heading back to the lab when suddenly BOOM!

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

Calae.1738:

Easy things are not worth doing. Difficult things are worth doing. Auto attacking NPC’s to death are for the mentally challenged.

lol!
love it.

i always said that, in a less harsh way.

and right now, the biggest rewards are faaaaar from the most challenging to get.

its more about having the stamina to auto attack farm overcrowded and laggy world event over and over and over.

uncool. im not mentally challenged! i dont want to do that! but then my progression is slower….
weird!

Akhellan.4180:

scinder.8315:

Some enemies have been changed but not everything. I know specifically, Krait are quite a different kettle of fish in some zones.

To some degree mayhap I should clarify why I finally have become concerned enough to post in a forum:

Indeed, only a few enemy types have been “empowered” in the recent patch. But I get the feeling that their deployment is part of an experiment on the dev’s part.

If this “experiment” is considered to be a “success”; it is my concern that this “empowerment” will then be extended to many other enemy types throughout the game.

Couple this with recent attempts to increase the harshness of character downscaling and I become truly concerned.

I don’t want open world exploration to become a source of aggravation rather than relaxation… Granted mayhap my position is a minority position with regard to the game’s audience as a whole, but it does not mean that I will continue to withhold comment hoping for the best.

In the end this is all my opinion and the dev’s will do what they will/must. I just choose to no longer remain silent in the hopes that they will be made aware of the diverse audience their work has attracted.

I just don’t understand what fun people find in just wandering around a world and being able to kill things with absolutely zero threat of dying themselves.

Kinda like playing PacMan without any of the goblins in the maze, if you ask me.

Karizee.8076:

Finished Tequatl and heading back to the lab when suddenly BOOM!

Yeah the champs that spawn there now have some kind of one shot thing that you can’t even see…maybe because of the horrible lag that they nicely added on most open world events.

Shootsfoot.9276:

I just don’t understand what fun people find in just wandering around a world and being able to kill things with absolutely zero threat of dying themselves.

Kinda like playing PacMan without any of the goblins in the maze, if you ask me.

Different strokes for different folks. Some of us got burned out on really challenging video games in the 80’s when it was a major event if you could beat any game.

rizzo.1079:

Karizee.8076:

Finished Tequatl and heading back to the lab when suddenly BOOM!

Yeah the champs that spawn there now have some kind of one shot thing that you can’t even see…maybe because of the horrible lag that they nicely added on most open world events.

Shootsfoot.9276:

I just don’t understand what fun people find in just wandering around a world and being able to kill things with absolutely zero threat of dying themselves.

Kinda like playing PacMan without any of the goblins in the maze, if you ask me.

Different strokes for different folks. Some of us got burned out on really challenging video games in the 80’s when it was a major event if you could beat any game.

From my perspective, I’m beginning to understand why computer games never appealed to me before I was forced into retirement by age/disability.

Unfortunately, these very same real-life circumstances required a re-evaluation of available choices of entertainment. Becoming homebound and no longer being able to hike and explore the real world, seek what I saw as “real” challenges has been an interesting experience.

I did not take the concept of “difficulty” in an electronic entertainment product seriously. As a result, where other players see “challenge”, I just see aggravation beyond a certain point… Very different perspectives. Very interesting.

Mayhap the devs never quite realized just how wide of an audience their entertainment product might attract. And I feel like a stranger in a very strange land when I read some of the responses my post has generated.

definitely,
you can have an hello kitty game and a dota 2 game..

very different in challenge level.

in most games today, you have the option to adjust the difficulty.
with mmos, you cannot really do that.

if they want to put that game on an esport level… it means thry want good players.
AND if they want to entertain these good players, they need to give them challenging pve stuff.
afterall its a pvprpg, but its still an rpg, otherwise these player will go play dota or a shooter…

to me the best business move would be to catter to good players for the long run.
less quick players have a lot of challenges to overcome before having 100% map completion and all dungeon done. if they like that type of content then they have a lot to do at their speed… + the living story should be the kind of difficulty youre looking for, and anet said they will expend a lot on that.

now its time for challenging content if they ever want to be taken seriously as an esport pvp game for fans of rpgs.

and they can.. but they need to understand the playerbase..

Akhellan.4180:

rizzo.1079:

Karizee.8076:

Finished Tequatl and heading back to the lab when suddenly BOOM!

Yeah the champs that spawn there now have some kind of one shot thing that you can’t even see…maybe because of the horrible lag that they nicely added on most open world events.

Shootsfoot.9276:

I just don’t understand what fun people find in just wandering around a world and being able to kill things with absolutely zero threat of dying themselves.

Kinda like playing PacMan without any of the goblins in the maze, if you ask me.

Different strokes for different folks. Some of us got burned out on really challenging video games in the 80’s when it was a major event if you could beat any game.

From my perspective, I’m beginning to understand why computer games never appealed to me before I was forced into retirement by age/disability.

Unfortunately, these very same real-life circumstances required a re-evaluation of available choices of entertainment. Becoming homebound and no longer being able to hike and explore the real world, seek what I saw as “real” challenges has been an interesting experience.

I did not take the concept of “difficulty” in an electronic entertainment product seriously. As a result, where other players see “challenge”, I just see aggravation beyond a certain point… Very different perspectives. Very interesting.

Mayhap the devs never quite realized just how wide of an audience their entertainment product might attract. And I feel like a stranger in a very strange land when I read some of the responses my post has generated.

I didn’t say it was wrong, I said I just didn’t understand it.

Avatar.1923:

definitely,
you can have an hello kitty game and a dota 2 game..

very different in challenge level.

in most games today, you have the option to adjust the difficulty.
with mmos, you cannot really do that.

if they want to put that game on an esport level… it means thry want good players.
AND if they want to entertain these good players, they need to give them challenging pve stuff.
afterall its a pvprpg, but its still an rpg, otherwise these player will go play dota or a shooter…

to me the best business move would be to catter to good players for the long run.
less quick players have a lot of challenges to overcome before having 100% map completion and all dungeon done. if they like that type of content then they have a lot to do at their speed… + the living story should be the kind of difficulty youre looking for, and anet said they will expend a lot on that.

now its time for challenging content if they ever want to be taken seriously as an esport pvp game for fans of rpgs.

and they can.. but they need to understand the playerbase..

Do you think, then that maybe the devs have made a mistake in perhaps “casting their net too widely” as it were?

What do the creators of this content regard as a “good” player?

My youngest nephew was right when he recommended I start playing computer games as a means to gain access to something more interactive than watching television or reading — If nothing else, it makes interesting conversations such as this possible.

Karizee.8076:

Finished Tequatl and heading back to the lab when suddenly BOOM!

I got caught in one of theses scenarios myself, wp in to do tequatel and was dead along with 8 other players before i knew what hit me. A champion krait and a vetern was right on top of the wp. However I do welcome the scaling of monsters in the open world, I also belive if this is going to be a growing trend then instead of nerfing healing at every opportunity. Anet should look at giving our healing power abit of a boost.
I run a ranger in exotic cleric gear and have no problem killing most monsters and champs I meet in open world. However I have noticed as of the last couple of pathces monsters are getting stronger and thier conditions are lasting longer.

@akhellan

hehe

theres that!
get into a guild that use teamspeak and make some gaming friends that play your style. its cool.

and yeah, the net is spread wide as it is.
imo the game would do better if they are able to make the players vary their content instead of farming 1 thing to death.
living story could be good for that, you do a little bit of story, then the next day you re back to your other stuff.

and, if they are serious about esport, a good player would be defined as a player who can kill almost anything without the need for an armor, because he ll avoid almost everything.

still, its an mmo esport so it catters to the kind of player who also like the regular rpg pve/coop stuff.

its a new beast to tackle…
how to make the pvp “fit” into the rpg.
as it is now it doesnt.

maybe if being good at pvp would give you some bonus in pve/wvw ?
maybe if you had a medal near your nametag to say that youre in the top 5, or between 100 and 150 or 5000+ or number 1!
then that would create some popularity; same thing as putting stars to push a product, be it fashion or football.

anyway.

we are changing subject now!

Avatar.1923:

@akhellan

anyway.

we are changing subject now!

Lol, sorry about that. Leave it up to the OP to go offtopic in the very same thread he started, eh?

I’m new to the whole forum thing and can get lost on tangents as a result :P — There is only so much one can learn by “lurking” after all.

So let me get this straight… your saying you realise that different folks need different strokes, yet your complaining about that very thing, that the game is trying to become relevant to hardcore players as much as casual????

Anyways, while i boggle my brain on what your trying to say… Remember that these event scaling changes are just being tested at the minute. Its very likely to change again before they implement it globally. If they even do to the lower zones. Id assume they are looking at either leaving the scaling in lowbie zones or perhaps using a less harsh scaling curve. After all it would be silly to have an event thats next to impossible in a lvl 1-15 zone. But its equally as silly having bosses and/or mobs that dont even last long enough for me to target and damage with a massive grp in higher levelled areas.

If a challenge and difficulty wasnt your cup of tea, then im sorry for that but unfortunately, we cant have everything. My suggestion is dont play high level zones and meta events when the change is introduced globally. Itd be the same as hardcore players saying the whole game needs to be 10 times as difficult all round. Id say that argument was equally as ridiculous as this one for the same reason you have admitted yourself. Different strokes for different folks.