Guild Wars 2

I started playing GW2 for the first time at the beginning of July. A good friend told me about it and she even bought the HoT Ultimate Edition with me so we could level up characters together. I loved it right away and have had a great time playing through the story quest, the daily events, the crafting, etc. Not one time did I ever feel that playing this game was a sub-par experience until now. The Heart of Thorns Beta has left me scratching my head wondering why the overall experience was so bad. While I could comment on many of the topics already posted I will focus on the one I noticed the most.

The difficulty of the enemies I faced in HoT versus the ones in the base game is what I am referring to. I had a fully leveled and geared Ele when I created my beta character and he went down in just about every fight. That is not fun nor does it challenge me since the some of these enemies were basically steroid induced fruit bats. I did not see any point to making enemies this difficult and it really turned off both me and my friend who has played this game much longer than I have. There did not seem to be any reason for the difficulty of the enemies either. I suppose if you just want to tag this expansion as “for larger groups only” then feel free to but I would probably just play through the rest of the GW2 base game and then leave since it does not leave room for 2-4 person groups. Each element of the game needs to come together to create something that makes for at least a good overall experience for the gamer. In my case, if this were the first time playing this game I would have switched back to ESO or Tera. If this development team plans on keeping things at this difficulty I will say that I’ve just wasted money on getting this expansion.

So to sum this up, this is my complaint: the difficulty of taking down enemies while in a 2 person group was too hard and the re-spawn rate was too high. I like the current difficulty I encounter in GW2 because my character feels like a hero. He can take down the common enemies with little effort but gets a challenge when encountering a higher level veteran or same level champion just like a comic book hero or some character in an action movie. In HoT I was repeatedly taken out by vines popping out of the ground, stupid bats in a frog village, and over powered enemies of all sorts. I could not progress in the story line cause I was too busy fighting enemies with every 3rd step I took. I stopped playing the Beta on Saturday after one event that took a good 20-25 minutes to complete and that was with a relatively good group of people fighting along side us. Please tell me that this difficulty is not going to be what comes when this goes live.

Inb4 all the scripted fight lovers tell you you’re doing it wrong and taking 5 hours to kill 1 mob is exciting.

wabat.9817:

I stopped playing the Beta on Saturday after one event that took a good 20-25 minutes to complete and that was with a relatively good group of people fighting along side us. Please tell me that this difficulty is not going to be what comes when this goes live.

I’m guessing this was one of the 2 events that were bugged? Either the Itzel basket event or the escort event on the south where you have to kill vinetenders? Both of the events were much harder nearing on impossible to complete in the beta only because they were bugged, so this might have been the issue here. On non-bugged map instances they were no harder than a pack bull escort in Silverwastes.

I’m okay with the time-to-kill and difficultly ramp on all of the mobs other than snipers who could do with having their rapid fire skill nerfed 30%. It took 5 seconds or so to kill a non-veteran mob with Revenant which I didn’t consider too long.

Too many people are complaining about difficulty, unfortunately and eventually Arenanet will nerf it under the ground. Finally i actually had to use my dodge outside dungeons, i had to interrupt mobs not jut mass murder everything with the usual boring ability rotation like in any other zones. It is fun, different enemies do different things and you need to react quickly. I guess you didnt dodge/interrupt/los (getting out of the line of his sight – hiding behind something) the sniper’s ability when you had target on your head, didnt move away before the “mordrem triceratops” charged you, didnt aoe at little raptors, etc. These are not elitist things to do in this action oriented game. I sincerely hope Arenanet wont listen to you. Finally “outdoor pve” is not mindless aoe farming.

I’m feeling like maybe the issue isn’t the overall difficulty of the mobs, but maybe some individual ones? I felt like most of the enemies were in a good place, but there were a few I agree are perhaps a little too powerful in some situations (even when appropriately countering their mechanics), such as the Snipers.
I very much do not want to see a drastic reduction in the strength of enemies, as to me a wild land with fiercer enemies feels more appropriate when compared to the often traversed countrysides of Tyria. I’m sure more balancing is on the way, however, and likely some tweaking to make certain enemies further focused on mechanics as opposed to raw power.
It may also be worth taking into consideration that many of the profession mechanics players are making use of are still being balanced as well (I know I felt a little weak as a Tempest without focusing on auras).

I disagree as well. On all my lvl 80’s with tier 6 or better gear I can pick a zone at will, walk in and stroll leisurely about, obliterating anything in my wake (including veterans and large groups) with little to no effort. It’s boring. I like the new difficulty. I like the fact that i need to dodge, and be aware of my situation and not just stand there burning down foe after foe with ease. At the same time I did not get a chance to play at night where my understanding is that the difficulty increased significantly. Perhaps you were playing at night and getting stomped. I could see where being downed in every fight could get old.

I like the difficulty of the mobs. It’s a little bit of a challenge playing solo, which is nice, and we will get used to them and/or start using more survivable gear/builds. That’s fine! But the overall feel of the beta for me was just… broken events and empty maps, so all that there was to do in verdant brink was JUST kill mobs. That was the problem for me.

The mobs are new, they will take getting used to. If you can move through Orr, Silverwastes or Dry Top you can after you take a breath move through the new zones as well.
Events are bugged and also unknown, thinking it should be easy because there are other people there could be a problem.

OP, it is the first open beta weekend, with many more to go. Don’t sweat it, as things will be adjusted and changed a lot before HoT gets released. This is the reason why I tried the beta, but didn’t take any of it too seriously. Gave me some good looks at what direction they’re heading with HoT, but that is about it. Some interesting elite traits for some of the characters, and some interesting, tougher npcs to fight, but, again, don’t put a ton of stock in it, as it will get changed and adjusted depending on feedback before it all goes live.

Just enjoy and have fun with the betas, and realize that nothing is set in stone in the betas.

I also enjoyed the difficulty of the enemies. I remember walking through the itzel hunting grounds and getting pretty much instant downed by 4 or so smokescales I believe. They launched from all sides and I didn’t even see them before they attacked. lol I just laughed. Guess I should have been paying closer attention to my surroundings. I had a blast. Enemies were difficult but you could take all individual enemies out by yourself. I believe the difficulty of enemies should be the same. I also loved the idea that difficulty increases at night. This promotes getting to a location in a certain amount of time and it promotes group play. We’ll get better as we understand the enemies and area better. Perhaps they should lower the numbers in certain areas for those who want it. However, they should also have high numbers in certain area for those who want it or those who :o guess should have been paying attention to their surroundings.

If your walking down a dark alley with no friends around not paying full attention, you should get downed. Oh raptor, I love you so, makes me feel like I’m in Jurassic Park.

The difficulty teaches you to run from fights you can’t beat, consider your build choices, and makes more abilities useful.

There were mobs that had an attack that repeatedly hit you as it blinked all around you and would burst you down very quickly. This made me consider wanting to have protection, blinds, interrupts, etc, things that you would never want in the base game.

These mobs aren’t hard to fight, but it does require you to step out of the “press-1 zerker gear dodge every 20 seconds” mindset. Also consider these event and mobs will get zerged to all hell when HoT launches, significantly trivializing the difficulty.

99% of the current game lacks challenge or engagement and there’s a subset of the community that wants challenge and hasn’t been given that in ages.

NetherDiver.6079:

The difficulty teaches you to run from fights you can’t beat, consider your build choices, and makes more abilities useful.

There were mobs that had an attack that repeatedly hit you as it blinked all around you and would burst you down very quickly. This made me consider wanting to have protection, blinds, interrupts, etc, things that you would never want in the base game.

These mobs aren’t hard to fight, but it does require you to step out of the “press-1 zerker gear dodge every 20 seconds” mindset. Also consider these event and mobs will get zerged to all hell when HoT launches, significantly trivializing the difficulty.

99% of the current game lacks challenge or engagement and there’s a subset of the community that wants challenge and hasn’t been given that in ages.

I have to agree with this. It was good to see Anet going in this sort of direction with the beta this weekend. I hope it continues, as npcs that are more difficult to kill are challenging, and force one to think more as a player/fighter. I really enjoyed that aspect of the beta this weekend. I know that part of the reason I have been getting so bored with the game lately is the utter lack of any sort of challenge with the npcs, unless you get jumped by more than 4 at a time, and even then, it is not tough to emerge victorious. I am getting tired of wandering through PvE like a zombie, with little concern about ever getting killed. I welcome some tougher npcs that actually require a bit of strategy/skill/tweaking your build to be able to emerge victorious.

wabat.9817:

I started playing GW2 for the first time at the beginning of July…

I think I see part of the issue right there. You’ve only been playing GW2 for one month. You haven’t had time to fully learn the game and how to play your chosen profession(s). GW2 isn’t a complex MMO like some out there, but it does take time to master it. You may have had time to level up to 80, but that is only the beginning.

I’ve been playing GW2 for 3 years, and I’m still learning. Heart of Thorns wasn’t made for beginning players. I’m hardly an elite player like some out there, but I didn’t find the content in the beta too difficult. Yes, it was a bit rough at first, but that’s because I had not yet learned how the new enemies act, and I was testing out new skills and weapons. Once I got used to the new stuff I started to do pretty good. By the end of the weekend I found things challenging, but in a good way.

Been playing since 2012, the new area was a little rough to begin with since I was so used to killing mobs just using hundred blades and it really makes you use your skills. Once you figure out the enemy mechanics and learn which abilities to dodge even the smokescales were op but there’s a lot of counter play and once you know it they’re not hard at all. Went full zerker and rekt, not gonna lie I died a few times and got downed but it lessened the more I played.

I have already answered to similar topic and I will just repeat same advice. Don’t be scared of how difficult it initially feels and going full zerker (at least until you learn more about every mob mechanics) doesn’t seem to be viable option anymore.

My first PVE experience was with Revenant (a class I knew almost nothing about) wearing celestial equipment (until I figured out I can get different stats) and my first impression was also “This is way too difficult”. However, when I changed to Reaper (class that I main with just new mechanic) and once I added a bit of toughness and observed what some more complicated mobs do, PvE content became really pleasant experience for me, who BTW finds PvE boring and sometimes too hard in this game. Unlike dungeons (which I find difficult) this type of difficult I actually liked.