Guild Wars 2

Since I didn’t find a Topic for this I thought I should just kick the discussion of.

I hate underwater quests.

Now let me elaborate. I love the concept of underwater quests. They look fantastic, they allow for a different gameplay and they’re something other games don’t have.

It’s just that they’re no fun.
They are way too hard.
Now this MAY just be me/my class (80 Necro) but everyone else in my guild also hates them.
And I think most people hate them because looking at the 70-80 Orr zones, underwater events rarely ever get done.

The weird part is, my complaint has nothing to do with these quests/events being underwater. They’re not harder because you have to move 3 dimensionaly or anything.

It’s just that the difficulty/balancing underwater seems to be off. I do way less damage (I have an exotic level 80 underwater weapon), mobs can kill me with a few hits (level 80 underwater armor thing) even though on land I almost never die. You always get swarmed with tons of mobs.
The cages in the sylvarie starting zone for example spawn 2-3 mobs, so there is nothing you can do about being swarmed.
For Necro at least most of the underwater skills suck compared to the land ones and most of the really good slot spells don’t work underwater.
None of these problems have anything to do with the fact that the quests are underwater. It just seems that they’re measured differently. Is underwater supposed to be hard mode and I missed the memo?

To sum it: I love the concept of underwater zones. With one dragon underwater I’m sure we’ll see more underwater zones or an entire addon down there. I love it. I want to do these.
It’s just that as the difficulty is right now I probably can’t. At least not outside a group.
And I think more people think that way, this Thread will probably show (or not).

As said, in the endgame zones it’s really noticeable that most events, especially bosses, get 50+ players within a few minutes but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone kill that giant Champion Shark even though it’s right next to Fort Trinity. People just don’t want to fight underwater.

I agree. I think there’s something really weird going on with Underwater combat. I swear my weapon/spells do 1/3 less damage, and I get hit way easier.

There’s also the extreme difficulty of gauging distance (Shark event, the shark is close enough to smack me down with his tail, but I try to target him and he’s out of range?) and how sometimes, targeting 1 enemy causes 3 more to swim up behind me….

I dig the underwater environment. I have leveled all my character skills including underwater skills. It can be disorienting, but then so is it in real life. As far as getting swarmed yeah it is much easier to get swarmed and harder to get away underwater than out of water. Again it is in real life also.

So I think it does a good job of closely simulating underwater realism while still keeping it a fun game.

In Viathan’s Arm I am still able to out maneuver underwater Tiger Sharks, Krait and other critters.

True we do seem to do less damage. Not sure about getting hit any easier. Tactics work well underwater that have helped me complete underwater events.

I enjoy being underwater in real life and in the game. I have found a few spots now were I will just let my character sit and wade underwater to just hear the background sound. It’s very soothing! Some times it’s annoying when other players come by and break up the tranquility.