Guild Wars 2

Add me to the list of people who find the difficulty in HoT maps to be a bit too much. I played from launch to mid-2013, then took some time off to play ESO. I came back a couple of weeks ago to re-learn how to play with the new changes, then finally put down the cash for the expansion.

I knew that the difficulty had been increased, but did not expect it to be quite this much. My biggest gripe is about story mode where you have to solo. Did the developers actually play these through with all classes? Some classes are much weaker than others, and it is very frustrating to die over and over because the mobs all focus on you and the damage is outrageous. I am fine with difficulty being raised, but in my opinion they overdid it and made it too difficult for those without groups.

Have you tried different gear, skills, specs, anything?

Why do you have to solo story mode. I run story modes with my guild all the time. Not sure why more people don’t play with friends.

HoT content probably assumes you have full ascended and appropriate stats for your build. If you’re going in with greens for example you’re wearing weaker stuff than the developers thought you’d wear.

Thrist.9046:

Why do you have to solo story mode. I run story modes with my guild all the time. Not sure why more people don’t play with friends.

I agree that there’s no need to solo, but people do for various reasons. I’m in a very active group and lots of people are willing to help out with things, however that doesn’t mean someone is always readily available to help (they might be doing fractals or something else etc). People who have less time to play might have a bit more trouble finding someone able to help them out at a specific time. Not to say it can’t be done, just pointing out that sometimes it can be a bit beyond a persons control. The main story content should be soloable for casual players (not saying it isn’t already either, just clearly some people find it quite difficult). I think there are tons of ways to bring in optional challenge without making it difficult for people to complete the story.

If you’re struggling I would sugest slotting more CC into your spec and build, good crowd control will have you destroying HoT mobs very easily.

I think it is still too easy. Especially the story was better than a sleep pill. Learn to play issue there. And yes I played through the story at least once on every class, 18 times in total.

Only part where I couldn’t solo was the achievement where you had to kill the modrem without reviving any Pact soldiers. As a bunny.

Oh, and of course Migraine, but I haven’t done that yet because of how buggy the final instance was and have lost interest since, I haven’t even checked if they bothered to fix that yet.

I’m pretty sure every class can do HoT story..

Not trying to make assumptions here but have you looked into your build, traits, etc? At one point while you were gone builds were reset and you might very well find yourself needing to respec to overcome a default, kitten, set up.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Thrist.9046:

Why do you have to solo story mode. I run story modes with my guild all the time. Not sure why more people don’t play with friends.

I agree that there’s no need to solo, but people do for various reasons. I’m in a very active group and lots of people are willing to help out with things, however that doesn’t mean someone is always readily available to help (they might be doing fractals or something else etc). People who have less time to play might have a bit more trouble finding someone able to help them out at a specific time. Not to say it can’t be done, just pointing out that sometimes it can be a bit beyond a persons control. The main story content should be soloable for casual players (not saying it isn’t already either, just clearly some people find it quite difficult). I think there are tons of ways to bring in optional challenge without making it difficult for people to complete the story.

All this is true. However, the OP used the words “story mode where you have to solo.”

I assume that he believes that to be true. He didn’t say where I have to solo, or where most people solo, he said you have to.

What you said is correct, but I don’t think the OP realizes you can get help.

Malediktus.9250:

I think it is still too easy. Especially the story was better than a sleep pill. Learn to play issue there. And yes I played through the story at least once on every class, 18 times in total.

“5th person worldwide to reach 30,000 achievement points.
Currently bearer of 101 titles (excluding “No Title”).”

Well, you are definitely in the minority as far as playerbase is concerned. It’s safe to say your opinion so not relevant for most of us.

Uzzar.7390:

My biggest gripe is about story mode where you have to solo. Did the developers actually play these through with all classes? Some classes are much weaker than others, and it is very frustrating to die over and over because the mobs all focus on you and the damage is outrageous.

While I do agree on general that HoT maps are full of annoying and broken monsters, I never had any problems doing story mode. I do play all 9 classes and everyone was able to do story, sure sometimes I died on some silly jumping puzzle bit but in the end i found some of the LS2 bosses more challenging then whole HoT story.

Takoyakii.2146:

I’m pretty sure every class can do HoT story..

This is correct. I’ve run HoT story on every class. Some solo, some with guildies who had issues.

Biggest thing to keep in mind is, if you are having trouble ask for help from your guild or someone on your friendslist.

Hot is way too easy I run around maps hitting 1 with a ranged weapon getting map completion while farming events and watching netflix on my other monitor. Change your build. Anet even nerfed it from the beta version which was much better

Its easier if you say what in particular you are having trouble with and then people can provide you with advice . In all honesty i don’t consider the difficulty increased there are some new mechanics to look out for but once you understand how the enemies work it is fairly trivial . As far as the story goes there where a couple of missions in season 2 that i would say where more difficult than any of the HoT story.

I hardly consider myself a hardcore player i have just under 7k ap and only one of my character has any ascended . I took my revenant into VB at level 75 and was able to get HPs and do events without much trouble .

Azure.8670:

Hot is way too easy I run around maps hitting 1 with a ranged weapon getting map completion while farming events and watching netflix on my other monitor. Change your build. Anet even nerfed it from the beta version which was much better

Is trolling accepted on these forums ?

foxcat.4096:

Its easier if you say what in particular you are having trouble with and then people can provide you with advice .

Exactly this. Vague comments about difficulty aren’t helping anyone, vague comments about it being hard to solo, ourageous damage, classes being weaker than others etc don’t help anyone either.

@OP: be more specific if you expect to be taken more seriously and get the advice and suggestions you need.

I have played through HoT with my Engie, Necro, Guardian and started with my thief, Revenant and Ranger. None of the classes have been specifically hard to play with but my Thief have had the hardest time but still I do enjoy that most because it is challenging. Except for my guard and Engie the rest have at best exotic armor and not ascended. But I have to be honest I haven’t soloed it all the time.

I don’t think that the difficulty of Story Missions were raised at all, after all that are all Level 80 Story Missions. Parts of the Story was always group content. Of course if you did Level 10 Personal Story with a Level 80 Toon in Exotics it was braindead easy, but old Level 80 Arah Story Mode wasn’t that easy to solo.

I have done every Story Mission (core Tyria and HoT) solo, many on different classes and all were doable.

What is hard? Do people not know you have more than your auto attack in this game? Do people seriously not know the animations of mobs so they can avoid being hit by big attacks?

Seems three years of casual content has ruined this game going forward if the players are going to complain at the slightest of challenge being introduced.

pepsis.5384:

Azure.8670:

Hot is way too easy I run around maps hitting 1 with a ranged weapon getting map completion while farming events and watching netflix on my other monitor. Change your build. Anet even nerfed it from the beta version which was much better

Is trolling accepted on these forums ?

I’m not trolling at all. I run those maps all day doing hero point trains for people and farming events for map currencies because I’m working on all 3 new legendaries and just finished astralaria. There’s so few ranged enemies you can press one and watch TV all day. Reaper and literally melee everything. I’ve run tangled depths half afk so much that dulfy shouted me out on the td hp walkthrough. Game is absolutely simple, press win and move. In beta mordrem snipers one hit you during the day time, that was hard

pepsis.5384:

Azure.8670:

Hot is way too easy I run around maps hitting 1 with a ranged weapon getting map completion while farming events and watching netflix on my other monitor. Change your build. Anet even nerfed it from the beta version which was much better

Is trolling accepted on these forums ?

+1

I feel it is heavily class dependent. I breezed through the story as a full zerk (exotic only) reaper with only half the traits unlocked. I suspect I would have significantly more trouble with a glass mesmer. Maybe op should try one of the pve faceroll classes (necro, warrior, guard, herald)? I suspect the experience will be much different.

Humlae.1234:

I feel it is heavily class dependent. I breezed through the story as a full zerk (exotic only) reaper with only half the traits unlocked. I suspect I would have significantly more trouble with a glass mesmer. Maybe op should try one of the pve faceroll classes (necro, warrior, guard, herald)? I suspect the experience will be much different.

It shouldn’t be different though it will depend on what build/gear people use. If you know how to play your class and what skills to use on mobs you will do fine. People still have not realised this is not core tyria where mobs do 0 Dmg.

Uzzar.7390:

Add me to the list of people who find the difficulty in HoT maps to be a bit too much. I played from launch to mid-2013, then took some time off to play ESO. I came back a couple of weeks ago to re-learn how to play with the new changes, then finally put down the cash for the expansion.

I knew that the difficulty had been increased, but did not expect it to be quite this much. My biggest gripe is about story mode where you have to solo. Did the developers actually play these through with all classes? Some classes are much weaker than others, and it is very frustrating to die over and over because the mobs all focus on you and the damage is outrageous. I am fine with difficulty being raised, but in my opinion they overdid it and made it too difficult for those without groups.

I have completed HoT story mode five times with my five characters (Elementalist, Mesmer, Necromancer, Ranger, Ravenant), and i did it 100% solo with full exotic gear (i don’t have any ascended item in my inventory except for crafting materials). And please note that i’m not even a good player, i would rather say i’m average at best.
My point is that HoT is far from “too difficult”. Yes, it is more difficult than core Tyria. Yes, you can and will die A LOT while exploring the jungle, but it’s really just a matter of getting used to it. Hell, if i could do it, everyone can.

I do on the other hand think that some people think the game is to hard if the die once, twice or many a third time.

I don’t even know what I’m doing in the story mode. Some of the puzzle part is frustrating.

I don’t really like puzzle.

Some of the replies really seem stuck up. I don’t make it a habit pointing out what other players do because it isn’t my business, but I can’t go every 3rd post without seeing it ride off on a high horse somewhere or just berate the OP or general player population.

OP, you are right, HoT is harder than Core Tyria. As someone who personally enjoys doing Personal Story solo myself, I’d suggest getting a toughness set, something pretty tanky. It doesn’t have to be Exotic, but Rare should do. Also, build yourself to be a bit more tanky in any way possible. Focus on dodging out of the attacks and try to every now and then practice defensive strats against adds in-game outside of Personal Story to get used to the new build. Its really either that or rolling a class that has a way easier time.

If I will make any comment on the mobs in HoT is this: they are annoying as a mother kitten (self-censor for A-Net) sometimes. I get that players like a challenge, but Pocket Raptors exist only to make a player feel silly for getting massacred by a pack of tiny little lizards chewing every exposed limb off. Really makes you feel defeated when tiny little things like that take down a level 80 character who killed Zhaitan before…

As someone who loved running around as Glass Mesmer, I realized I can’t do that atm. I tried, but I just don’t have the ability to properly run Glass Mesmer and play at my best. At the same time, GW2 isn’t my main MMO, as I play all kinds of MMO’s (pretty much anything but WoW atm) and I don’t really feel that I need to get bent out of shape trying to become some Mesmer Dodge master just to enjoy the expansion. Its way easier for me to just roll a more defensive build and practice defensive combat rather than burst things to death. I end up taking my time killing enemies and bosses and can now even face off against several veteran and sometimes a champion add, but at least I am able to play finally without repairing my gear due to death. And if I really do start getting bent out of shape about something in GW2, there is an amazing list of other MMO’s I can go and play for a bit to come back with a fresh outlook on GW2 mobs and find a new take on the situation.

I play MMO’s not to be the best, I play it for entertainment. I don’t aim to be the most amazing player on the planet unless that is my main goal or unless there is a particular boss that I want to kill just to feel like bad-kitten (self-censor for A-Net). Some of you that replied, however, seem to be giving off some elitist vibes. Let’s chill on berating players on here or in general, its a game. If someone doesn’t have the time to dedicate themselves to this game alone, that’s okay. If someone doesn’t main this game as their primary MMO/main game/only game like you, that’s not a good excuse to go judge them on how bad they are or make comments about -“three years of casual content has ruined this game going forward if the players are going to complain at the slightest of challenge being introduced.”- (Looking at you, Sird).

Others of you have been very constructive and helpful and I’d like to say thank you for offering your replies and perspective to the OP. You guys are why I like GW2 community.

I swear, this new gaming generation always expects results after the first try. Put some thought into it. Try different builds. Figure out where you, the minority, is going wrong rather than calling for nerfs, effectively ruining the enjoyment a challenge brings.

I have done story mode on every class and all in berserker gear and I have had no problems in completing it. I may come of as elitist but I also play gw2 like most and that is to have fun. When I see comments about content being to hard I can’t help but hang my head and let out a sigh.

The expansion has been out for a while giving players time to learn the maps (at least routes to get around) and the mobs. If people are skill being killed by raptors and snipers then they have not figured out how to deal with them or just ignoring the other 7 skills they have and the dodge key. I run around on a slow glass cannon guardian so I know these mobs hit hard but they also die fast.

The difficulty is not that high. Anet have just increased the amount of awareness players need to survive. Take the last story step fight with Mordy. He applies confusion on you and you keep swinging away and die, who’s fault is that? You for ignoring the confusion or to hard fight? Now contrast that with Zhaitan fight…

We have also seen this coming with the introduction of SW and the mobs there. Those terragrifs and flower floating things that shoot vines from the ground that follow you till you die! It seems to me the challenge isn’t the content it self but the lack of awareness players have when dealing with mobs or zones. As I said before that if we had more ‘how do I kill x mob’ or ‘how to I get around TD’ threads then maybe we would have less of these threads as players will be made more aware.

Fogleg, are you serious? Unoptimize content to the most progressive gear? You must be new to mmos. Here I have a healthy alternative. Play the game. Get the correct gear. Optimize your character through research and experience. Easily proceed through the underwhelming content. As you can see, I’m not the one complaining here. I’m simply saying I disagree, content should not be nerfed because it took you a few tries. If you want it, work towards it. Isn’t it great??! Enjoy… Buddy.

I literally do not think it is possible to dumb down guild wars anymore than it is in its present state.

pepsis.5384:

Malediktus.9250:

I think it is still too easy. Especially the story was better than a sleep pill. Learn to play issue there. And yes I played through the story at least once on every class, 18 times in total.

“5th person worldwide to reach 30,000 achievement points.
Currently bearer of 101 titles (excluding “No Title”).”

Well, you are definitely in the minority as far as playerbase is concerned. It’s safe to say your opinion so not relevant for most of us.

It is save to say that it is not an opinion but a fact. The story is significantly easier than about any single player RPG story.

It always amazes me how many angry people run around posting meaningless shouts without any ability to read and even more, understand, any written content. While I am sure they all have greatets builds, eyes and fingers ever seen through the history, its the brain that has obvious trouble processing information. Who knows, could be because all the energy is spent on shouting angrily at everything and everyone, or for example, that it is just missing.

FogLeg.9354:

It always amazes me how many angry people run around posting meaningless shouts without any ability to read and even more, understand, any written content. While I am sure they all have greatets builds, eyes and fingers ever seen through the history, its the brain that has obvious trouble processing information. Who knows, could be because all the energy is spent on shouting angrily at everything and everyone, or for example, that it is just missing.

So let’s be clear here. We’re not “posting meaningless shouts” or “shouting angrily.” We are simply disagreeing with the fact that the OP is claiming HoT is too difficult. I literally face rolled through the main story line without dying once. I clearly disagree with this and I am stating my opinion.

Now buddy, it seems like you are the one shouting meaningless gibberish. I mean really… you recommended I go through all the content in white gear, lol. How about instead of wasting your energy shouting angrily on these forums, you spend some time researching this game and practicing. You’re so delirious I can hardly translate what you are trying to say. Thanks.

Actually, no, it wasn’t raised too much, its just not as easy as before.

Now, the second beta week (when it wasn’t what was basically on the show room floor for pax and stuff) man, THEN the difficulty was high! Going zerk was suicide!

If people are dying to pocket raptors it is a sad thing. They are so weak and die in two or three hits. Oh, I’m not going to say I didn’t die to them when I first began HoT and tried to run past them (same as with the small dinos that roll around. Seriously, do not try to run past those) but after the first couple of deaths I figured it out. They always have a two second pause between attacks and they all attack at the same time. So, y’know… press dodge…?

On a more serious note (haha) even in greens the game is doable. I played the Hot story with a Rabid geared engineer, a Berserker mesmer, Berserker revenant and half rabid half Viper reaper (was still in the process of crafting Viper to replace my greens).

Did I never ever ever die? Kitten no. Of course we die. A game with one hundred percent success rate in the first try (like the old Tyria some people are wailing and gnashing their teeth in longing for) has no value. Of course HoT mobs and the story line killed me a few times.

AND WHY IS THAT A BAD THING!? Whoo! I had to pay attention to timings and patterns of some mobs, see which ones I had to kill first, use the terrain to break line of sight. Why is this a bad thing?!

When was the last time someone died in old Tyria, outside of dungeons and falling off cliffs or trying to solo a champ? Show of hands, please. I’ll wait.

Okay, okay, this has no bearing to the OP. If you’re condition, buy green Rabid gear. If you’re power based buy Knight gear. Do not expect miracles, you still need to dodge.

And yes, some achievements are meant to be done in a group, even in story mode. This.. is… rare sense (previouslyknownascommonsense).

In my opinion, HoT is more of a L2P expansion. The core game allowed people of different skill levels to play the game. If one did not want to “learn to play” ie learn traits, skills, dodges & tells, they could easily be dragged around through the content with one or two other players. As long as they spammed 1 and completed hearts and vistas they could easily earn enough XP to get to the next level map area and still survive.

With HoT, it is just not possible to drag unskilled players through the content because players need to grind out enough XP/masteries on their own in HoT to be able to learn how to glide, bounce mushrooms etc to get through this new map content and story.

Anet made the decision to make more challenging content. In doing so, their goal was to retain players that prefer some challenge and are willing to accept the loss of the less skilled players that will be “left behind” in core.

No need to do fractal lvl 50 to be fine with the difficulty….I have barely set a foot in fractal and I am perfectly fine (I do die sometimes but hey you know it is only a game and we do have downstate and waypoints). And I think I am fine with it because I really enjoy the combat system and what classes are able to do to step up my gameplay….What is sad is that before, just a very subjective opinion on my part, the only way to see how great the combat is, was to play some PVP. Now Hot is here and I still haven’t set foot in PVP, so I can only give two thumbs up to Anet regarding the difficulty of pve in open world

TheLastNobody.8319:

I’m not gonna lie, I would love, LOVE seeing these people play dark souls or bloodbourne. I have a feeling it’d be hilariously entertaining.

Bloodbourne was kinda easy.

Dark souls was not even challenging if you played a mage, or were using summons.

But yeah, I’d love to seem them try.

which class are you talking about specifically and for which story?

Kanto.1659:

When was the last time someone died in old Tyria, outside of dungeons and falling off cliffs or trying to solo a champ? Show of hands, please. I’ll wait.

I see multiple people downed in virtually every meta event I bother to go to in the older content. Even in old Shatterer. Some get defeated when their downed self is sitting in AoE or if no one can get to them in time. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that there are not people less knowledgeable or skilled than you.

Note: I am not saying HoT is too hard. I do believe some of the HoT mob mechanics are just not fun, but that’s irrelevant to this topic. I’m also not trying to invalidate the idea that people can learn to deal with HoT mobs. However, your belief flies in the face of my recent experiences, never mind my historical experiences in central Tyria.

So you’re saying in order to see people die it had to involve a meta that spawned a lot of champs and veterans and where people had to dodge the red circles not to die? I think my point still stands, and there is no trap involved. There is me saying that dying is not a bad thing.

Super Mario bros, how many deaths needed to learn the patterns? Any game, really. Death is what stops from bumbling around and ask ourselves what to change, what to do so our progress won’t be stopped. There is nothing in the story that stops us cold.

TheLastNobody.8319:

Zeonis.1962:

So many scrubs in these threads lol, if the game is too hard quit don’t complain in the forums. This game is easy just dodge when the monster attacks you and use berserker gear….. All the people kittening not only in this topic but in others i have two questions for you. How many Achievement points do you have? and how many hours have you played? Because if you have done a fifty fractal before the xpac then you should be fine for this content.

I’m not gonna lie, I would love, LOVE seeing these people play dark souls or bloodbourne. I have a feeling it’d be hilariously entertaining.

Probably won’t happen though. I mean, it would be as stupid as if people who joined GW2 some 3 years ago was demanding difficult gated content and gearprogression requiring “hard work” in this game.

Oh – wait…

At first I didn’t really understand why ppl think that HOT is difficult, to me it was super easy, and I’m a casual player using exotics. Then I realized that my build is kinda ridiculous.

It is just that some classes are not as good at solo play than my ranger build, and ranger in general is an excellent solo profession. I have to be way more careful with my zerk DH than condi druid.

With my druid I can just run into a bunch of enemies and melt them with condis and not even care if I they chain cc me, with 25k health I don’t even need stunbreaks and I’ll just heal back up in no time, I can kite and drop traps at the same time so soloing champs is not an issue and even if I go down my pet will just rezz me.

DH is problematic because true shot roots you in place so you can’t really kite and deal damage at the same time. Now I found an interesting and durable DH build that I got to try out.

Blue Hare.8612:

At first I didn’t really understand why ppl think that HOT is difficult, to me it was super easy, and I’m a casual player using exotics. Then I realized that my build is kinda ridiculous.

It is just that some classes are not as good at solo play than my ranger build, and ranger in general is an excellent solo profession. I have to be way more careful with my zerk DH than condi druid.

With my druid I can just run into a bunch of enemies and melt them with condis and not even care if I they chain cc me, with 25k health I don’t even need stunbreaks and I’ll just heal back up in no time, I can kite and drop traps at the same time so soloing champs is not an issue and even if I go down my pet will just rezz me.

DH is problematic because true shot roots you in place so you can’t really kite and deal damage at the same time. Now I found an interesting and durable DH build that I got to try out.

What about sword/shield or sword/focus and longbow? Sword gives you a teleport and is quite fun.