Guild Wars 2

Totally agree. I loved the thrill of the fight in BWE2. The mobs and environment felt dangerous and I actually felt good running past on a healing tempest helping a poor soul out, who was about to go down. Nothing felt particularly over the top though, very close to perfect in my opinion.

The flat out removal of difficulty in the first story part was lame. BWE I was so happy when Rytlock showed up because it felt like a struggle and with him there I felt like I needed his help rather than this time: GET OFF MY SCREEN CHAR you’re interrupting my slaughter.

I’m running clerics tempest again this time and well… Things die fast to me ahahah I know I’m playing a healing spec – I want to roam support people and help out – If I really wanted to do kill things quickly I’d play berserker’s build or some close combo.

I didn’t get the mess around with the Defiance mechanics because everything died so incredibly ez.

YES! more hard encounters pls, we got all other Tyria for easy stuff ,we want to get feared to go alone at the jugle :P

The challenging content brought to open world as well said by Colin was gone away with BWE3. I don’t even have to look at the mobs, it is so easy to kill…

I agree, we need stuff that are harder to die, like in other BWEs

Please, change the difficulty back to where it was. Now it is just a walk in the park.
If you have made it easier because there were some crying about them being hard, are you going to nerf the difficulty of upcoming raids too?!

This is lvl 80 content… at least make the mobs as hard as they are on Cursed Shore… This is not Queensdale!

I agree, but one thing, the area we can play in is different from the last BW, this might be the reason!?

I have to agree, for someone that wants to end the “zerker meta”, this goes to the opposite side of that, open world pve in the new zones is a joke you can run with zerker gear without given a crap :S

Snipers need to be brought back, they are a slight pain but that is all they are.
I also think that I can take on too many mobs at once, great that the character is killing everything but that to me becomes boring fast. No requirement to slow down and think.

Very kind of you Anet to listen to the playerbase and nerf the content… Though I think the vocal majority seems to be us who do want it a little more difficult.

I realy liked the difficulty during BWE 1-2 and when players made posts about nerfing I didn’t stay quite I tried to tell them that the difficulty was ok.

Now what I fealt and noticed while playing was that I was killing realy easy and I could pull whole groups of modrem myself and kill them. I then noticed a Zerker Warrior running past up a slope with a few veteran enemies, a few seconds later they where dead and the warrior kept running to the next enemy, swoop swoop and it where dead. I am afraid that with this easy difficulty the Zerker meta will thrive.

And to point out to those who says that it was so filled with enemies before so you couldn’t run past them, well duh? You are not supposed to! Second I actually managed to run through most of the map without killing mobs, they did manage to immobelize me and hurt me but never kill me. If you are not planning to kill anything then why are you running with Zerker?

Edit:

mazut.4296:

I agree, but one thing, the area we can play in is different from the last BW, this might be the reason!?

No I am pretty sure it is the same map as BWE2, they have just added Raid instance. It feels like the events scale less now, I never manage to get to an event that just started before it is done from players allready being there and during BWE2 I always had a group of enemies to try out my builds but now I have problems finding them. Snipers damage is far less than before and they have a stealth and a knockdown skill now, they are cooler now but a little too easy.

Bee.7081:

Please, change the difficulty back to where it was. Now it is just a walk in the park.
If you have made it easier because there were some crying about them being hard, are you going to nerf the difficulty of upcoming raids too?!

This is lvl 80 content… at least make the mobs as hard as they are on Cursed Shore… This is not Queensdale!

Wow, mobs are weaker than the mobs in Cursed Shore? That would be sad, really.

I agree but maybe anet did it to show us the difference and get feedbacks

It’s always a beta.

The level of difficulty in this BWE has been disappointingly low. There is absolutely no feeling of concern or “oh crap” moments whilst exploring the content this time around. Being as this is the last BWE, I’m genuinely concerned that this level of difficulty could tank the expansion.

+1 to this thread, bring back the snipers and increase the mob density again

It needed some tweaking, but sometimes I’m lucky to find a mob now let alone find anything dangerous to attack me.

If it’s a comparison between the 2 difficulties, I’d lean closer to how it was in BWE2. It was hard, but fun

I can’t speak for open world stuff yet, but I was wondering why the demo story instance felt so easy, so I guess it is not just my imagination.

Koomaster.9176:

I don’t understand why anyone wants this amount of difficulty for open world content that is supposed to be accessible by anybody. These enemies are way too difficult. I shouldn’t need to travel with a zerg just to survive pve. Again, keep this to raids if people want content this hard.

Well I think it is becouse we are all different, but in my opinion I didn’t have the same problem as you. I play solo during all three BWE’s and I played with all classes trying out the elite specs and I tried different builds like PVT, Cleric, Carrion, Zerker and more and the only time I did have problems was when I was playing a zerker Daredevil the rest of the times I could manage to get through the whole map solo and do most events solo as long as I was planning ahead and just didn’t run in with my head first.

In my opinion, you should not be able to run zerker and kill everything in two hits without worrying about dieing. If you run Zerker you have to be aware of your surroundings and know when to utilize your dodges, blocks and more not just run in hit a few times and run to the next target.

If I go PVT I trade most pure damage and Condition damage for Survivability.
If I go Zerker I trade survivabilty for pure damage.
If I go Carrion I trade a little survivabilty for more Condition Damage and a litte pure damage.
And so on… At the moment with BWE3’s difficulty it will be like before, you will rather go with Zerker as you won’t die and thus don’t need PVT or anything else.

TL,DR: To answer your question in my opinion, I don’t want Zerker to be the only Meta and when it is this easy it will be.

They’ve literally only ever buffed Tequatl. We just got a lot better at killing him, then they buffed everyone with the specialization patch and let him be crit, so they buffed him.

But yes, everything else you said is true, and it looks like most players really want the difficulty back.

signed. BWE2 was fun, this is just a snoozefest

I appreciate that they’re trying to tune the difficulty. I definitely agree that it’s swung much too far towards the easy side now.

Maybe don’t make it as hard as BWE2, but it should definitely be more challenging than it is now.

Please, this doesn’t need a petition, they know. No one is arguing that this content is satisfying. Just let them know on the forums that this is an issue. Petition just seems… overdramatic.

Or you are just better at playing, as you now know what to expect? People seem to forget that what makes most things difficult is not knowing what you are doing. Once you do. Most of the difficulty is gone.

sharkswithlazers.7632:

Please, this doesn’t need a petition, they know. No one is arguing that this content is satisfying. Just let them know on the forums that this is an issue. Petition just seems… overdramatic.

Sorry if you feel is sounds “overdramatic”, but a petition literally just boils down to a “request to do something” – which is exactly what we’re trying to do.

sharkswithlazers.7632:

Please, this doesn’t need a petition, they know. No one is arguing that this content is satisfying. Just let them know on the forums that this is an issue. Petition just seems… overdramatic.

you must be new to forums, “petition threads” are made exclusively for adding another voice to the crowd, and for people who agreee but don’t want to write an essay about the nature of difficulty in video games to get their voice heard

it’s a token gesture to call it a petition thread and will probably get merged into a single thread by our overzealous moderators so the devs can ignore it easier

BrotherBelial.3094:

Or you are just better at playing, as you now know what to expect? People seem to forget that what makes most things difficult is not knowing what you are doing. Once you do. Most of the difficulty is gone.

in this case that is not true, they completely removed an enemy type (mordrem snipers) and lowered the enemy density

BrotherBelial.3094:

Or you are just better at playing, as you now know what to expect? People seem to forget that what makes most things difficult is not knowing what you are doing. Once you do. Most of the difficulty is gone.

No, they were statistically nerfed. They die in noticeably fewer hits. It’s not a skill thing.

BrotherBelial.3094:

Or you are just better at playing, as you now know what to expect? People seem to forget that what makes most things difficult is not knowing what you are doing. Once you do. Most of the difficulty is gone.

Except that’s not what happened. Remember all those Mordrem Snipers that killed so many people in the intro mission? They’ve been straight up removed. I haven’t found a single one in the wild except in the blighting tree area and the late night defense events. A lot of the dangerous enemies were just entirely removed and replaced with mordrem grunts, and many of the other hylek enemies got severe damage and health reductions.

I agree, I missed the beta 2 because i was so absorbed with testing out dd in pvp..and now with excitement from hearing about the last BWE I went in hoping for some epic challenge…but I just face rolled everything and felt disappointed. I would also like to point out i was playing the most underpowered new spec the daredevil and STILL destroying everything with ease. I highly agree…raise the difficulty, im tired of playing ’slap keyboard and get rewarded" I want to be challenged, we have brains..we will figure it out. those that cant handle it, tough. leave then, go play mario.

Calcifire.1864:

sharkswithlazers.7632:

Please, this doesn’t need a petition, they know. No one is arguing that this content is satisfying. Just let them know on the forums that this is an issue. Petition just seems… overdramatic.

you must be new to forums, “petition threads” are made exclusively for adding another voice to the crowd, and for people who agreee but don’t want to write an essay about the nature of difficulty in video games to get their voice heard

it’s a token gesture to call it a petition thread and will probably get merged into a single thread by our overzealous moderators so the devs can ignore it easier

You must be new too, ANet do not like “petition threads”, they tend to get locked down or deleted shortly after. They see them as demands, the title would have been better if it said “suggestion, rase open world difficulty”.

As it stands it sounds like a demand, not a request.

I get Anet catering to casual players in the base game, but this is an expansion designed and marketed towards veterans. It should be tough as nails. It’s a level 80 zone in an expansion, casuals or newbies won’t be playing this.

Well regardless of petition or suggestion…it needs to change. Noone likes killing things while not paying attention…how on earth is that fun?? I like challenge! I dont know if I can speak for everyone but I like using wit and actually devising ways to overcome tough obstetrical…if anyone argues with this then please leave this game and go play some other mindless game where you can get rewards for doing nothing…because i am sick and tired of this game feeling that way because of those people.

BrotherBelial.3094:

Calcifire.1864:

sharkswithlazers.7632:

Please, this doesn’t need a petition, they know. No one is arguing that this content is satisfying. Just let them know on the forums that this is an issue. Petition just seems… overdramatic.

you must be new to forums, “petition threads” are made exclusively for adding another voice to the crowd, and for people who agreee but don’t want to write an essay about the nature of difficulty in video games to get their voice heard

it’s a token gesture to call it a petition thread and will probably get merged into a single thread by our overzealous moderators so the devs can ignore it easier

You must be new too, ANet do not like “petition threads”, they tend to get locked down or deleted shortly after. They see them as demands, the title would have been better if it said “suggestion, rase open world difficulty”.

As it stands it sounds like a demand, not a request.

I was being snarky, sorry that doesnt translate to text well.

I’m well aware that these threads are futile, I even likened it to “another voice in a crowd”, something that doesnt matter and is unnoticeable, like a gnat farting in a hurricane.

this sort of thing happens in any video game forum, 5 threads of moaning, one “petition”, then they all get merged and ignored :P

and nope, not new, just jaded, decaffinated and snarky. at this point the pattern has repeated so often that it’s just become fun to play along with the theatrics.

I agree, difficulty in BWE2 was much better

@Walhalla @isarii
if I remember correctly, there were some people that were asking to nerf the snippers because it was ‘too difficult’ for them to do anything. Not sure where that post went tho. Im guessing that’s why they got removed from the first story and from some parts of the map

signed

/15 Charrs

Stormbolt.7293:

I get Anet catering to casual players in the base game, but this is an expansion designed and marketed towards veterans. It should be tough as nails. It’s a level 80 zone in an expansion, casuals or newbies won’t be playing this.

Agreed! The last Beta weekend was so great because the mobs were difficult and it actually made you think twice on what to do next. I also miss those snippers </3

First forum post for me. (And I’ve been here since the original betas)

Please don’t do this again! Leave the HoT maps challenging!

Never posted on forums before but this got me.
Yup. I agree entirely. Removing the snipers was a bad move, as they put so much more pressure on me to eliminate them and watch for telegraphs. The enemy HP was also reduced far to greatly. I felt like I was just out in Kessex mowing mobs down with aoe again. 0 consequences for poor play. In addition, the npc’s in the story mode will help you up if you get downed anyway; you can’t lose. There shouldn’t be the same catering to new players in HOT that there is in the core game. Everyone in Maguuma has made it through the game and understands how combat works, they should be challenged, not pandered to. Please please please don’t water down the challenging combat we’ve all been looking forward to. BWE2’s balance was excellent.

Make it like how it was in BWE2

I liked the difficulty of BWE2 as well. I started playing like I play everything else in the game and found myself almost dead very quickly. I couldn’t just spam one and hide behind NPCs in full zerker gear while messing around on my iPad. I had to pay attention. Once I paid attention, I could keep up, so it wasn’t stressfully hard. It was a very nice balance.

As far as casual players, they can still participate in harder content, they just need to travel with more friends (aka guilds will actually have to do things together in open world areas… right now there is no reason to do anything open world with your guild. You can solo anywhere).

Or, we have this wonderful new squad UI. Having content that is more difficult and needs a group for casual players to survive will actually give people with commander tags something to do…

signed! I’m looking forward to challenging open world content

GummyBearSummoner.7941:

Stormbolt.7293:

I get Anet catering to casual players in the base game, but this is an expansion designed and marketed towards veterans. It should be tough as nails. It’s a level 80 zone in an expansion, casuals or newbies won’t be playing this.

Agreed! The last Beta weekend was so great because the mobs were difficult and it actually made you think twice on what to do next. I also miss those snippers </3

It’s all about understanding your audience. The core game is populated with casual PvE players who want to grind a few world bosses. HoT will be populated with seasoned veterans who run meta builds and can tear through trash mobs with no trouble.

I agree

The mobs are way too easy now and it makes the whole map seem boring :-(
I enjoyed having to be aware of the surrounding mobs to avoid being rekt on the previous bwe.

The only mobs that anyone thought were problematic in prior betas were the snipers and smokescales. Snipers have not just been nerfed they just got removed. What needed to happen with snipers is to have a cooldown on their sniping skill so that if you interrupted it it was meaningful (they’d just do the snipe skill again until you were out of interrupts or were dead)

We crave danger, make it harder.

We can always go back to farming silverwastes for ez moad.

Kailee.8790:

…If this was easy, then we need a massive overhaul on dps for the druid…

I went full cleric with staff… it took ~2-3+ minutes for 1 veteran beetle… I just press 1 and alt tab

Simple fix: Don’t play druid and don’t use clerics if you want to do DPS…

P.S. My main is a ranger.

I don’t want to demand anything from Anet since they should know best about their game.

I agree that difficulty felt on par in BWE2. I did a few events yesterday and the mobs just melted away. And away was the feeling of danger in the jungle zone. I was pretty bummed and emotional… they removed the perfect open world difficulty. May it have frustrated some people? Probably yes. Should a new lv.80 zone which introduces hardcore content be harder than what we had before? Absolutely imo.

In my experience yesterday I wore defensive celestial armor and the enemies literally melted away in seconds. I took little to no damage most of the time. I have to admit that I saw some difficulty spikes where I met mobs which still posed a challenge, but it was rare.

When traversing the map I had the feeling that I cheated through it. BWE2 had that fun experience that pulling too many enemies made the situation escalate pretty fast. That was awesome.

Yup bring back the old balancing, this is terribly easy.

It is amazing how quickly this has tanked my enthusiasm in regards to the potential of the expansion. If they are just following old trends like this

I am a filthy casual, but I want a challenge, you know? Silverwastes or Southsun feels more dangerous than this… Please tweak things back up again! Right now it feels like playing events in Cursed Shore, where you have to be lucky to even land a hit on the mob and get credit before they die.

The only issues I had in BWE 2 was with the smokescales (too many blinds/evades, and they never moved out of their safe zone long enough to land a hit on them) and to a lesser extend the snipers (interrupts were just a waste, dodging behind them seemed the only option)

Besides that, it was great to have to asess the situation an a plan before running at some mobs – something I usually only had to do when I try to solo champoins on underleved characters.

Now it feels even more easy than running around in Silverwastes